A Noah turned exorcist
by Kitty Petro
Summary: My first DGM story. Cloud 9 finds a person that's compatible for one of her spare innocence, problem is, that person happens to be the Noah of lust. Now Lulubell must leave her family or belief behind her and join the exorcist or end up as a fallen one.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

It was a day like any other day for the exorcist general Cloud Nyne. Killing a few akuma, talking to kind finders she meet along her way and trying her best to keep her pet/anti akuma weapon Lau Shimin out of trouble. Trying was the keyword there.

"OK Lau Shimin you have to the count of 3 to get out of that tree, I do not care that we are in Africa or that it's mating season get down here now!"

Lau Shimin blinked at the tone his mistress where using and sighed knowing that he would be in grave peril later on if he didn't do as she said and jumped down from the tree filled whit horny white furred monkeys to upon Cloud's shoulder receiving some banana tasting treats and a scratch to his cheek.

"Good boy" Cloud said smiling gently at the small monkey walking on her own way

Somewhere else at the same time

"Why are we doing this again?" Tyki Mikk asked annoyed, slapping at a mosquito that landed on his cheek.

"Don't you remember?" Road asked smiling as she twirled Lero around and around ignoring the panicking sounds Lero made by being mistreated like this by the young Noah.

"We were bored so I suggested we visit a random place for a change of scenery."

"Technically you where bored and dragged us whit you" Lulubell said sighing.

These warm conditions made her queasy. She needed some cold milk, as soon as possible.

"Can we take a break soon? My legs are killing me."

Road sighed at her two family members.

"Fine, but only a short one."

She rolled her eyes as Tyki and Lulubell both sank down whit an almost simultaneous thump, each sitting up to a tall tree in the African jungle.

Back whit Cloud

Cloud sighed, silently wondering why she was in Africa of all places. What the chances where for it to be a person compatible whit 1 of the 3 pieces of innocence she where currently carrying whit her was here in this god forsaken place where less than zero.

A sudden tug made her stop and blink. The tug came from inside her uniform, from where she kept the spare innocence. She dug out one of them and blinked as it moved and shone a bright green.

"You found an owner?" Cloud asked lifting an eyebrow. "Well I'll be damned."

"Well then run off, I'll follow you."

The innocence flew away Cloud on its trail, smiling to her self. An apprentice, she hadn't had one of those before, this could get interesting. The innocence rounded a corner and Cloud blinked and stopped as she heard a sudden yelp, a sudden coughing fit and voices of concern.

She lifted an eyebrow and looked around the corner, and suddenly went back away out of sight. Oboy she thought not really sure if she should run for her life in fear or not. She calmed down and looked to Lau Shimin and started to think hard.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

When asked later on how it had happened, no one present could give a complete answer. Road, Tyki and Lulubell had been walking through the African jungle, the poor umbrella Lero being forced to act as a walking cane for Road, when Lulubell yawned and stretched.

Something green had come swishing around a corner and flew right into Lulubell's mouth with so much force it threw her of her feet making her yelp and the other 3 having the same look on their face, the 'what the hell just happened' look.

"Hey Lulubell are you all right?" Tyki asked walking over to Lulubell who lay sprawled on the jungle floor.

She groaned and sat up, then her eyes got wide and she started coughing.

"Lulubell Sama lero. Are you ok Lulubell Sama lero?"

Lulubell clutched at her chest, still coughing.

"Oy Lulubell answer me damn it, what's wrong?" Tyki asked.

"I think I know the answer to that"

Road, Tyki and Lero turned to the voice and gasped.

"An exorcist" Road said growling.

Cloud simply smiled. "Before you do anything rash, let me tell you something" she said smug. "My anti akuma weapon Lau Shimin is somewhere up in the tree's hiding, whit 2 of the 3 spare innocence I carry around."

"And the 3rd?" Tyki asked.

"Your Noah sibling is currently choking on it" Cloud said.

Road and Tyki's eyes got wide as they turned to Lulubell who looked in pain.

"Lulubell" Road said almost in a whimper.

Cloud smiled, loving fate at the moment.

"The way I see it" she said trying not to look too smug as the two angry Noah looked at her. "1 of 3 things is going to happen to her" Cloud said pointing to Lulubell's sweaty pained body.

"Opinion 1, the body automatically declares her unfit of the innocence, making the innocence recoil and make… Lulubell was it? Yeah well the innocence will recoil and make the being known as a fallen one."

Road and Tyki's face paled and Lero gulped. "Opinion 2" Cloud said dragging some of her blonde hair over her ear. "The body will accept the innocence, she will calm down, you two will kill me and try to find the rest of the innocence hidden away in the jungle, you will take Lulubell back, force her into betraying her innocence… and she will turn into a fallen one."

Road hated admitting it, but the exorcist general was right, she had seen a fallen one before and Tyki had told her about Suman Dark.

"Opinion 3" Cloud said looking straight up at the two Noah's, even walking a few steps up to them. "Is more or less the same as option 2, whit some few adjustments. The body will accept the innocence and she will calm down. She decides she want to live and leave together whit me… as an exorcist in training."

Road and Tyki rose, both about to tell Cloud to go to hell, when Lulubell screamed in pain and they turned, their eyes wide as the middle Stigmata on Lulubell's forehead suddenly glowed green and calmed down, the stigmata now green and solid.

"Huh parasitic type" Cloud said, talking as calmly as if she where talking whit friends about the weather.

"Well that leaves opinion 2 or 3" she said lifting an eyebrow as if silently asking, 'so what will it be?'

"Road please tell me that she is bluffing" Tyki begged as he sat down next to Lulubell who opened her eyes and looked over at Tyki before she sighed and closed her eyes.

"You know she isn't" Road said sighing, sniffing as she walked over to sit next to Lulubell hugging her.

"What will we do Tyki? We can't just let her die."

"No" Tyki agreed sighing. "But if we let this exorcist take her whit her…" Tyki didn't finish the sentence… it wasn't necessary.

Road looked up as she felt something cold on her face. She looked up and saw tears on Lulubell's face, as the taller woman looked down on Road whit her golden eyes.

"Road… Tyki… I don't want to die… I'm sorry."

Her voice was raspy and weak, and as soon as the words were out of her mouth she closed her eyes again.

Road sighed and hugged Lulubell. "Very well Lulubell, it is your choice, I hope you will live as long as possible."

Tyki sniffed and hugged Lulubell too, slipping a deck of cards into her coat pocket. "Don't forget about your family Lu" he said and rose from the ground, he and Road looking at Cloud who where smiling in triumph.

Lero was having none of it. "Road Sama, Tyki Mikk Sama, you can't just abandon Lulubell Sama lero."

Road sighed and took a good grip around lero looking seriously at Cloud.

"The moment Lulubell said she wanted to live, she had sided whit the exorcist, making her a traitor to the Noah family. We can't take her back, the only reason we are leaving her and the general alive is as a last service and farewell gift from the Noah family."

Road snapped her fingers and a door appeared and opened.

"Let's go Tyki; we need to gather a family meeting."

"Hai" Tyki said whit a sigh and walked, lifting a hand up to touch his hat in polite respect for Cloud.

As they disappeared and the door vanished, Lau Shimin appeared on Cloud's shoulder, carrying the two innocence, giving them to her.

"Thank you Lau Shimin" Cloud said tucking them away walking up to Lulubell.

"Care to lend me your hand so I can help you stand up?" Cloud asked Lulubell.

Lulubell opened her eyes, a small something that could look like a glare in her eyes as she held out a white gloved hand wich Cloud used to drag Lulubell up, supporting her as she laid the arm around her shoulder, taking her own free arm around Lulubell's shoulder.

"Believe it or not, I have a boat waiting at a river a few meters down this way, can you manage that far?"

"Do I have a choice?"

Cloud smiled. "By the way we haven't been properly introduced." She stopped talking and Lulubell took the point and sighed.

"Lulubell Noah."

"Nice meeting you Lulubell, I'm Cloud Nyne."

Lau Shimin chirped, and Lulubell opened her eyes to look at the small monkey who deemed it nice to climb on top of her head.

"Ah yes this is my pet/weapon Lau Shimin."

"Pleasure" Lulubell said dryly.

Lau Shimin chirped again indicating that he at least approved of this new human, although, her skin colour was very much different than from his mistress


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

After a few minutes of walking the jungle cleared and Lulubell sighed in relief as she saw a riverboat big enough for 5 people.

Cloud smiled.

"Can you get there on your own? My back is killing me."

Lulubell sighed but rose steadily to her feet and walked over to the boat and got in it and sat down at the bow. She looked up as Cloud stepped into the boat too, sitting down at her opposite side giving Lulubell a small smile.

"So now what?" Lulubell asked taking of her gloves, dipping her hands into the cold river water and splashing some water to her face sighing in relief as her headache calmed down.

"Well we have to wait for a while, I have a finder whit me but he is down in the local village getting some food. That being said, I think it's a good idea for you to change back into your other form. The finder might get scared if he comes and sees a woman whit grey skin, dark stigmata's and golden eyes."

"Yes he would" Lulubell said smiling in glee at the thought, but stopped smiling at the look on Cloud's face.

"All right, all right" she said, her hair changing from black to blonde, her skin going from grey to a regular white, and her yellow golden eyes turned dark and brown. Her stigmata's disappeared, except the now green middle one who stayed, the innocence, not caring that the Noah was changing forms.

"Better?" Lulubell asked halfway sarcastic, dragging her tie a bit loose in the heat.

"Much" Cloud said smiling then frowned as Lulubell's face suddenly looked surprised. "Something the matter?"

"My headache is gone" Lulubell said surprised. "Ever since the innocence got a form my forehead has been throbbing like hell, but now it's gone."

Cloud smiled. "Well not really surprising. After what we have gathered, just like dark matter, Noah powers are the innocence's complete opposite. It's like fire and water, when one meet's the other, the stronger one takes over. The innocence weren't going anywhere and you where in Noah form, one tried to eat up the other, therefore the headache."

Lulubell sighed lifting a few fingers to touch the emerald like stigmata on her forehead. "Great" she muttered and looked up into the jungle where a man dressed in a long beige trench coat came walking through looking at Cloud and then blinked as he saw Lulubell.

"Eh Cloud Nyne Sama who's she?"

"A new apprentice Timothy, now come down here and let's go, I'll explain as we head down the river."

As Timothy steered the boat down the river Cloud told him everything, Lulubell smiled at his expression when Cloud told him she where a Noah. After all the explanations where done whit Lulubell looked at Cloud.

"So where are we heading?"

"Cape Town" Cloud said. "There we will take a boat around Africa up to the Ivory Coast. There we will change ships up to Spain, and carriage from there to the start of France, and then train through France and then boat to the UK where we will walk to London."

"Well that is quite the trip" Lulubell said.

"Yeah not counting all the akuma we will meet" Cloud said smiling mischievous. "More than enough time for me to train you and your innocence."

Lulubell did not like the way she said that but who was she too talk down to her new sensei. She yawned, feeling pretty tired, it had been a long day.

"Hey Sensei, you mind if I get some sleep?"

"Feel free" Cloud said smiling, loving being called sensei.

Lulubell nodded in thanks, unbuttoned her bluish black jacket and took it off, folding it as a pillow and lay down in her seat in the big boat, trying hard to stop thinking about what her family where doing now.

DGMDGMDGMDGM

Whit the Noah's

DGMDGMDGMDGM

The earl didn't really know what was going on, but it could not be something good. He had been in the room for 5 minutes already, and Road hadn't smiled at him once… ok she had once but it was a forced smile.

Tyki hadn't touched his food yet, but was into his 5th game of solitaire.

The twins, having woken up from their coma after their battle whit Krory looked just as confused as him, as did Road's adopted father Cyril who looked concerned about the way his daughter was behaving.

Even Lero looked sad.

"So anyone want to tell me why you have gathered a family meeting?"

Road looked up, opened her mouth to say something, sighed and sank down into her sulk again.

The earl looked over at Tyki.

"Tyki pet?"

Tyki looked up from his cards and swallowed hard.

"It… eh… its Lulubell, she's…" Tyki stopped talking apparently having trouble finding the right words before he looked down on his cards again.

"DAMN IT CAN SOMEONE TELL US WHAT IS GOING ON?" It looked like Debitto had had enough walking around the bush.

"You want me to tell them Road Sama lero?"

"Please do Lero;" Tyki said answering for Road who just nodded once.

Lero nodded and started talking, not stopping or giving room for questions. When she was done everything was quiet for almost 30 seconds.

"LULUBELL IS WHAT?" Debitto was pissed; he had dragged out his gun, Jasdero right behind him.

Cyril sighed. "So Lulubell is lost to the enemy huh?"

The earl was not happy. He was downright pissed. Lulubell was one of his most faithful Noah, calling him her master, always stopping by in her cat form snuggling up to him, losing her over to those damn exorcists… "Well I guess there is nothing we can do now" he reasoned. "Lulubell is now a traitor and shall be dealt whit as any other exorcist. I understand why you left her alive when you did, but I will not accept it if you do it again."

The earl rose from his seat. "Now then, you Noah have a farewell party to have had, don't you?"

The Noah nodded and Road stood up dragging a small table to a wall. Tyki placed one candle on each side of it lighting it as Jasdevi placed a few bottles of milk in between them, Lulubell's favourite drink. Cyril got out glasses, filling them whit wine, beer and milk for himself, Tyki Jasdevi and Road.

They gathered around the table holding up their glasses.

"Good bye Lulubell" Road said and as soon as those words left her mouth, all Noah's started to cry.

The memories of Noah were grieving. And somewhere in the African jungle Cloud and Timothy blinked as Lulubell changed in her sleep into her Noah form, tears running down her face, as she felt the grief she had caused the family.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

After a few days in the boat Cloud, Lulubell and Timothy arrived at Cape Town, Lulubell and Cloud saying good bye to Timothy who had a job longer up in one of the English colonies.

"Well then Cloud said smiling at Lulubell. We have a few hours until the ship goes, so how about we go somewhere and get some food?"

Lulubell just nodded, not trusting her voice. Cloud had asked her about the crying fit and Lulubell knew that she was now officially cast out of her family. She knew she would be sooner or later, but still, it hurt a bit to know that her family now where out to kill her. She and Cloud sat down to eat, Cloud giving Lau Shimin a bunch of bananas.

"Is he going to be able to eat all that?" Lulubell asked.

Cloud smiled. "Parasitic type innocence takes a lot out of its owner since its part of its body. Therefore parasitic type exorcists have enormous appetites. Just wait until you start using yours, you will notice it too."

Lulubell blinked, looking over at the small monkey who was finished eating already.

"Speaking of wich" Cloud said suddenly all business. "I think it's time we figured out what that innocence of yours do."

She rose, laying some money on the table beckoning for Lulubell to follow her, wich she did, although not with joy. She followed Cloud into a clearing near the end of the dock at the start of the jungle. Cloud smiled.

"Very well Lulubell, 2 words you need to know. Innocence activate."

Lulubell nodded swallowing once trying to find her voice. She opened her mouth and for the first time as an exorcist in training said the two words that would change her life forever.

"Innocence… activate."

The changes happened as soon as the words where out of her mouth. She felt her canine teeth grow and felt her gloves rip as her fingers turned into claws. She also blinked as she noticed that she had turned into her Noah form, whit grey skin, black hair and golden eyes.

Cloud smiled looking Lulubell over, circling around her. "Not bad, lot of potential, you look like some of the tigers I used to hang whit at the circus I worked at before."

"You have been in a circus?" Lulubell asked, trying to get used to her longer fangs.

"Yeah, I was an animal tamer, where do you think I meet Lau Shimin? Now then let's see what those teeth and claws can do."

She gestured to a tree. "Let the tree have it."

Lulubell walked up to the tree and braced herself before sighing… Well it was meant to be a sigh. It ended up becoming a sonic wave emitting from her new fangs in a cross pattern, blasting most of the bark of the palm she stood in front.

Cloud blinked. That was quite the attack she thought to herself.

Lulubell gulped closing her mouth. Walking up to the tree she looked down at her claws and placed them at the poor palm dragging them into the tree slashing quickly all she could. The poor palm fell down too Lau Shimin's glee, because it suddenly rained bananas.

Cloud smiled. "I have seen enough Lulubell; let's go back to the ship."

Lulubell nodded relaxing as she felt the innocence deactivate, this new power was scaring her, even though she hated admitting it.

A few hours later Lulubell found herself inside the cabin she and Cloud where sharing for the first trip up too the ivory coast lying on a bunk, trying vainly to ignore her sensei's monkey who were sitting on her pillow pulling at her hair.

"Eh sensei can you tell your monkey to back off?"

Cloud just smiled. "Be grateful, he's looking for lice or other bugs that could have landed in your hair. He will stop when he is finished looking."

Lulubell huffed but sat up grumbling as Lau Shimin climbed up on her shoulder continuing his digging for bugs in her hair, dragging up the pack of cards Tyki had given her laying out a solitaire on the table in the small cabin.

"Your brother gave you those didn't he?" Cloud asked, remembering the Noah whit the hat dropping something into her pocket.

"Cousin Lulubell corrected her. His father is my uncle."

"And the girl… Road right?"

"Tyki's niece."

Lau Shimin made small happy monkey noises, walking down Lulubell's arm, down on the table and up to Cloud's shoulder, digging into her hair to look for bugs. Lulubell looked up, her eyes resting on Cloud's face.

"So where did you get that scar?"

Cloud looked over at Lulubell, her smile gone.

"Sorry" Lulubell said at once, concentrating on her cards again. "It was none of my business, I shouldn't of…"

"It was an akuma."

Lulubell looked up intrigued.

"It was a normal day at the circus I worked on" Cloud said looking back. "We were ready to start preparations for the night's show, myself training and feeding the animals, one of them Lau Shimin. He had always been my favourite, because he was so tame that I could take him whit me wherever I went. We where like living sponsors for the circus" Cloud said smiling.

"When there was something the circus needed from the town we where stopping at they always sent me and Lau Shimin. Kids loved us and adults were impressed. That day we went to the town to get some eggs for Marcus, the groups clown. One minute I where paying the kind woman at the grocery store, the next thing I knew Lau Shimin had jumped off my shoulder to a nearby tree. As I yelled at Lau Shimin to come down the woman smiled, telling about the story of the tree. In the spring it made the most beautiful flowers, releasing a smell that was said to be so good that no one wanted to harm the village in any kind of way."

"Innocence" Lulubell sighed and Cloud nodded.

"Lau Shimin didn't come down, and I sighed starting to climb up to get him, ignoring the two nice men whit silver crosses on their chest who asked if they could help."

Lulubell smiled. "Enter the exorcists."

Lau Shimin chirped on Clouds shoulder as she continued the tale.

"Lau Shimin was tall up in the tree and was refusing to get down. He had found a hole in the tree and had disappeared into it. I got up to the branch he had been sitting on and dug my hand inside and dragged Lau Shimin out. In his paws where something green that he refused to let go of."

"Let me guess" Lulubell said whit a small look at the little white monkey. '

"Innocence" Cloud said sighing. "And after I climbed down whit Lau Shimin and the innocence the two exorcists decided they wanted to help me back to the circus. I allowed it, Lau Shimin refusing to let go of his new green biting toy. As we walked to the circus the two exorcists told me all about the innocence, exorcists, the earl and akuma. I laughed, didn't believe them the least, it was too much for me to handle. When we got back to the circus the exorcists asked if they could have the innocence. I smiled and told them that if they could manage to get the item from Lau Shimin they could have it. They didn't manage it, but not for lack of trying. Lau Shimin made them work and hard. Then suddenly he did something that nearly made the exorcists cry, he ran up a tree and ate the thing."

Lulubell laughed, imagining the face of the exorcists. Cloud smiled.

"I laughed too saying that they could stay a while to see if they still wanted the thing when it came out, something the two gentlemen didn't look too enthusiastic about strangely enough."

Lulubell was gasping for air now of the humour but beaconed for Cloud to continue something she did.

"The exorcists bid their farewell and promised to come and look at the show the circus had later that day, probably to kidnap Lau Shimin while the rest of us where distracted."

Cloud sighed. "The night came… and then came my act. The circus had 2 tigers, Lau Shimin and an elephant. All of them where my responsibility. Because of the danger the tigers where always the last ones inn. Lucky really because if the tigers had been loose…"

Cloud shuddered.

"Anyways it started like always, whit me showing of by riding on Jumbo, the elephant." Cloud smiled at the memories. "After Jumbo's solo act the people in the back would let inn Lau Shimin who ran all around the ring before coming to sit on my shoulder. Cloud stopped smiling. Then came the part that used to be so much fun. I asked if there was anyone in the audience who wanted to help me whit a trick. A cute adorable girl in the front row caught my eye and I let her come up. She couldn't have been more than 6…"

Cloud looked really depressed and Lulubell had forgotten all about her solitaire.

"I bent down and told Lau Shimin to say hello. He screeched and hid behind my head. As I turned to the girl to apologise I found myself whit a gun pointing to my nose."

Lulubell sighed. She had guessed as much.

"A level 2 akuma… luckily though the gun pointed at my face was a flamethrower and not a gun that shot bullets. After that it was a blur honestly" Cloud said whit a sigh. "People panicking, exorcists intervening… All I remember was my hand going to the whip at my waist, and screaming Lau Shimin's name… next thing I know this huge creature stood beside me beating things up… at least I think he did, just as my hand moved the flamethrower hit my face."

Cloud's hand went up to the burned skin on her face.

"When I woke up everything was over. The exorcists told me what Lau Shimin had done and said that it was my duty to join up whit the exorcists. I have been fighting ever since."

Cloud smiled scratching Lau Shimin under his cheek. She stretched yawning.

"It has been a long day, how about we hit the hay?"

Lulubell nodded packing her cards away, trying vainly to not stare as Cloud stripped down to her undies and lay down under the covers on her bunk.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The next day Cloud woke up as she always did, at dawn. She rose from her bunk and got dressed and smiled as Lau Shimin chirped to show that he too had woken up. That just leaved… Cloud smiled and walked over to Lulubell.

"Hey Lulubell time to get up" she said shaking Lulubell gently.

The Noah grumbled and dragged her covers longer up over her shoulders making Cloud sigh.

"Lulubell I know you are awake, last warning before I do something you are not going to like, get up."

Lulubell didn't move.

"Suit your self" Cloud said beaconing for Lau Shimin to sit in her hand. She bent down next to Lulubell's bunk and gently lifted the covers. "Have fun" she said letting Lau Shimin in under the covers. "3… 2… 1…"

"ARGH GETOFFGETOFGETOFF."

Lulubell got up whit a start, trying to shake off Lau Shimin who chirped happily. Cloud smiled. "I warned you" she said, not affected by the glare Lulubell sent her way. "Now get dressed we need to train."

"This early?" Lulubell grumbled.

"You questioning your sensei?"

"No ma'am."

"Then get dressed and meet me on the deck in 10 minutes."

Lulubell grumbled again but started to dress none the less. About 7 minutes later Lulubell stepped up on the deck adjusting her blue tie yawning. Cloud smiled.

"Ah Lulubell just in time."

"For what?" Lulubell grumbled.

Cloud smiled. "Well to be frank, everyone knows that the Noah don't like humans, think they are inferior to them and all that jazz."

Lulubell didn't deny anything. It was true.

"So we are going to work on your people skills" Cloud said laying a hand on Lulubell's shoulder directing her towards where a lot of sailors where working. "Hey guys, here is the extra help" Cloud said ignoring the shocked look Lulubell gave her. She turned to Lulubell. "Say hi, do as you are told, and make some new friends, if you need me I will be in the front meditating."

And whit that she was gone leaving behind a flustered Lulubell, who took a deep breath, plastered on her face a fake smile and said whit the nicest voice she could manage this early in the morning. "Hi guys… nice to meet you."

The sailors all smiled back and went up to shake hands. Everything went fine until the last sailor came up. He was older than the rest, looking a bit downcast. He took Lulubell's hand not saying a word making the other sailors sigh.

"You got to excuse him miss, his wife died a few days ago, he has been depressed ever since."

Lulubell's eyes widened and she looked over at the sailor who meet her eyes and smiled before he turned into a level 1 akuma.

"EVERYBODY DOWN" Lulubell shouted reacting on instincts and dragged 2 sailors behind a mast as the akuma started shooting bullets. "Whatever you do, do not let it hit you, if it does you are dead" Lulubell said over the noise, turning towards the sailors. "I just hope Sensei heard this" she grumbled. Just then she saw something small and white who ran under the akuma and soon Lau Shimin was in her lap giving her a bit of paper. She took it reading the note.

_**Well Lulubell time to see how you can deal whit an akuma, activate your innocence and beat the crap out of it. And relax; the akuma's bullet's doesn't work on parasitic innocence.**_

Lulubell grumbled. "Relax she says, sure I am just going out to kill an akuma." She sighed and braced herself. "Innocence activate." As her innocence activated Lulubell ran out meeting the akuma eye to eye. She screamed angrily and wondered if it was her imagination that it sounded like a big cat roaring as a new cross patterned sonic wave came shooting out of her mouth hitting the akuma stunning it just as she came running and jumped, grabbing the akuma whit her claws sliding down it's back slicing it in half making it explode.

She landed on the deck sighing, calming down and starting to breath normal again. She looked up as she heard clapping, smiling slightly at Cloud who stood over her.

"Not bad for your first time Lulubell, I'm impressed."

"Thanks" Lulubell said rising. "Damn I liked those akuma better when I was on their side."

Cloud smiled. "Ah here come the sailors. You get the joy of explaining this, part of your people skills test, enjoy." Cloud smiled and walked away, loving being in charge and messing whit Lulubell. The Noah where going to become the most dedicated exorcist when she was through whit her. She looked up blinking as she saw a golem flying at her from an island she could only guess was Madagascar. She took it in letting the poor thing rest walking over to where Lulubell where finishing up whit the explanations.

"You done Lulubell?"

"Hai" Lulubell said sighing. Cloud smiled looking at the sailors who looked shocked, sad and relieved at the same time.

"Does this ship have some sort of telephone I could borrow?"

"H-hai exorcist Sama this way."

"Follow me Lulubell, I got a golem, I think Timothy has reported to HQ."

Lulubell winced. She had a feeling this was going to end ugly. The feeling didn't disappear as Cloud connected the golem and took up the phone.

"Cloud Nyne reporting in," she said calmly.

Reever who sat on the other end reacted by spitting coffee all over the paperwork in front of him. "Oh thank god the golem reached you" he said rising. "Let me get the supervisor he wants to talk to you." Reever jumped up and rushed over to where Komui sat, pretending to be sleeping. "Supervisor its general Cloud," Reever said holding out the phone.

It said something about how important the Noah/exorcist affair was when Komui just sat up whit out protest and took the phone. "General Cloud?"

"Hai supervisor."

"We heard from Finder Timothy. He told us that you had gotten an apprentice."

"Yes I have" Cloud said, keeping a polite, matter of fact tone.

"He also said that your new apprentice is a Noah."

"She sure is" Cloud said smiling over at Lulubell who sat quiet trying not to be seen.

"So it's true then? This isn't just a new trick of the Noah's? They haven't kidnapped you to get to the new HQ or something?"

"If you want you can ask her" Cloud said and Lulubell looked up whit a scared look on her face that screamed, please don't make me talk to him. Cloud smiled and held out the phone to Lulubell who gulped and shakily took it and said gently into the line.

"Exorcist in training, former Noah of Lust Lulubell reporting for duty?"

"Noah of lust?"

"Hai sir."

"The same Noah of lust who killed the oceanic branch leader as well as multiple of our researchers in order of getting back the earls akuma egg?"

Lulubell grimaced; she had hoped that wouldn't come up.

"Hai sir, that's me."

"Well then, can you promise me that when you come to HQ you will apologise to everyone for what you did."

"Of course sir."

"And will you mean it?"

Lulubell sighed. "I honestly don't know sir, I am still partly Noah, and I'm getting used to being an exorcist. By the time we get up to HQ, I will probably have changed, but I don't know if I will feel sorry for doing what I was told to do."

Komui smiled, this girl was honest at least. "And when you get your uniform and get sent out on missions, what will happen if you meet a family member?"

Lulubell looked downcast but answered as best as she could. "When Cloud said I had the choice of becoming a fallen one and die or living becoming an exorcist I said I didn't want to die, my 2 Noah siblings there whit me. They left me live as a last service from the family… but the moment I said I wanted to live, I had sided whit the exorcist, making me a traitor to the Noah family. The rest of my family, the earl and the akuma are now out to kill me, just as they did to the 14th. I have no choice when I meet them but to fight for survival, even if that means their death."

"Very well Lulubell, thank you for your answers, I will see you and the General when you get up here. Now can I speak whit the general for a bit?"

Lulubell gave the phone to Cloud and sat down, smiling gently at the proud smile Cloud gave her. "Yes Komui?"

"Please tell Lulubell to leave, this conversation must be told one on one."

Cloud turned to Lulubell. "Hey Lulubell why don't you go and have a look around the ship, this could take some time."

Lulubell nodded and rose from her seat, leaving whit a small nod.

"All right Komui what is it?"

"Are you sure it's safe? She is a Noah."

"Her family has cast her out Komui, and we need all the exorcists god is willing to give us for this war. She has been whit me for only 3 days, she is still new to this, she is sure to still think like a Noah. Give me some time whit her and she will see our side of this matter. Besides, she doesn't have to like the people she is saving, just look at Kanda."

Komui laughed. "True enough. Hey if you'd like I can arrange for an exorcist to meet you at the Ivory Coast so you have some company. Maybe being around other exorcists other than a general can help speed up her skills."

"All right, but promise me to not send Kanda, he won't be any help… and not Walker either. Whit the 14th thing…"

"Yeah I know" Komui said. "Don't worry, I won't send him. By the way have you heard? Leverrier is dead."

"WHAT?"

"Yeah, he was sure that Allen was meeting a Noah or something and followed him and Link on a mission and an akuma hit him… at least that is what Link and Allen said."

"Wow."

"Well then, I won't keep you from your apprentice general, I will see you soon."

"Hai" Cloud said hanging up. 5 seconds later she smiled. Honestly Leverrier's death wasn't a big loss. Honestly she felt like thanking the akuma for killing it. She walked out of the room taking the golem whit her. She blinked as the first thing she saw was Lulubell, gazing out on the ocean.

"So what's the verdict?" Lulubell asked. "Am I to be executed or what?"

"Oh come on" Cloud said holding around the woman in front of her. "You are one of us now. We won't kill one of our own."

Lulubell smiled gently, looking back towards the ocean. "Yeah, you are right… I hope."


	6. Chapter 6

AN: Many ask me why I chose Lulubell in this story. The reason is simple. Lulubell is my favourite character in DGM and she needs some love. So here is the next chappie, sorry it took some time, a lot has been going on lately

Chapter 6

A few hours later the rest of the ship woke up, all pleasantly unaware of the akuma attack earlier in the day. Lulubell smiled as she sat in a chair on the deck soaking some of the lovely African sun.

"Enjoying the weather?"

Lulubell opened her eyes looking up at Cloud who smiled gently at her.

"Yeah so what if I do?"

"Oh not much. Just wanted to talk about something before you fall asleep."

Lulubell sat up in her chair sighing, knowing that she was not getting free before she did as she was told.

"All right look in front of you, what do you see?"

Lulubell raised an eyebrow but looked.

"A lot of people" she said honestly.

"What kind of people?"

"Erm… Young people, old people, children so what?"

Cloud smiled. "Yes you are right. Families are here, as well as young couples who are probably here on a honeymoon, seniors celebrating anniversaries and so on."

"Yeah a bunch of happy people's what of it?" Lulubell asked, starting to get drowsy from the sun.

Cloud smiled. "True, they are all happy people… now if you hadn't killed that akuma how many of these people would be happy… or even alive?"

Lulubell blinked and looked closer on the people in front of her enjoying the scenery and some breakfast. There where children who looked like they had just started school… Old couples just enjoying the other's presence… newlyweds kissing out in the open as if it was the greatest joy.

"And if they had died" Cloud continued frowning at Lulubell who looked like she hadn't a care in the world of the thought of more misery. "How many do you think would come back as akuma when news came to the land that the ship had sunk and that there were no survivors?"

Cloud smiled laying a hand on Lulubell's shoulder. "So since none of them know what has happened, I will on their behalf thank you for saving their lives as well as their souls."

And whit that she left smiling as Lulubell frowned. Lulubell looked at the people in front of her.

'So worthless the entire bunch.'

She shaked her head and rose from her place walking to the toilet. Once there she went to the sink and glared into the mirror. Now while nobody else than her saw it, in the reflection of her face, right above her shoulder, stood a shadowy figure. It was full of circles on its skin, wearing the same clothes as she preferred. Its eyes where almond shaped and her mouth formed into a careless frown.

"Listen here" Lulubell said pointing at the mirror. "I am an exorcist now and I have to do things in a different way. Respecting humans is a part of the deal."

The figure just looked at her with out a care in the world. Lulubell sighed, still frowning.

"I know that this is probably hard for you to swallow, but we have changed sides, just like the 14th."

"Do not speak of that traitor" the reflection said angrily. It was a female voice, whit a slight echo in her tone.

"I speak however much about him as I want" Lulubell retorted. "I am just as bad as he where, and I am probably going to end up the same was as him too, get used to it."

The reflection just huffed and looked away.

"Lust… you know I can't use your powers anymore right?"

Lulubell sighed as she looked at the memory of Noah's lust, who sighed in comprehension. "I know. At least you can't use my power as you used to. But I don't know if you noticed but you got Noah skin when you activated your… your…"

"Innocence? Yeah I noticed. And I will try to use the innocence as much as I can to get used to that new power" Lulubell said glaring at the Noah in the mirror who winced.

Lulubell scowled. "I give up. Act like a spoiled brat who hasn't gotten her way, but be prepared to face the consequences when you do."

And whit that she turned away from the mirror and walked out from the toilet. When she was out on deck again she located Cloud.

"Hey sensei?"

"Hai?"

"Just thought you should know some Noah history."

Cloud looked at Lulubell.

"At first the Noah's where just as the other people. We had normal families and lived normal lives. After a few years the Noah's start getting headaches and suddenly starts hearing voices in their heads. As a conscience who told you what to do. Most family members will after a while break up whit their Noah siblings. Put them in private schools, try to adopt them away, and placing them at mental hospitals… After the emotional breakdown it doesn't take long before the stigmata's appear, and a few days after they fully appear, the Earl comes and says hello."

Cloud blinked in wonder and lifted an eyebrow as Lulubell suddenly smacked her forehead.

"Shut up lust I'm telling her whatever I want damn it."

Lulubell sighed and looked at Cloud.

"Sorry. Now then at first it's hard living as a Noah, and we have different ways of dealing whit it. Skin was always chewing on candy, Jasdero did some vandalism, and Tyki gambled. After a while it became a routine, and our personalities changed thereof to match our Noah selves. We isolated ourselves from the humans… well mostly anyway; Tyki is the exception of the rule. And since then we have lived as Noah's."

Lulubell looked at Cloud. "The Noah of lust is still whit inn me. I see her over my shoulder each time I look at my reflection. And she does not like this new set of circumstances. Just thought I should tell you that if I act like I have 2 personalities at times it is probably lust trying to gain control again."

And whit that Lulubell went away from the rail where they had been standing and walked over to where she had been sitting a few minutes ago.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

As thanks for saving their hides, the sailors let Cloud and Lulubell use the ship's cargo hold to train, something they did for hours every day. Lulubell had to admit she kind of enjoyed the training, especially after she finally got the hang of using the innocence. But as Cloud had said, all innocence powers get's so much tougher when you give them a name, as well as naming your attacks. As Lulubell looked at herself in the mirror in her so called released form, the first thing she thought was… panther.

So after a few days of training she announced to Cloud that she had decided to call her innocence the fanged panthress. She went a few steps further the same day and gave names to the two attacks she currently knew how to make; the sonic roar from her mouth, was soon dubbed crossed fang, due to the cross shape the sonic waves made as it shot to her enemies. She was starting to perfect the use of her clawed attacks too, choosing to name it dark clawed pounce. It sounded corny she knew it, but somehow it felt so right to give her attacks those names as if the innocence itself insisted on it. Now even if Lulubell enjoyed the training she went through there was still one thing she could do without.

"COME ON LULUBELL YOU CAN DO BETTER THAN THAT" *SMACK*.

Lulubell groaned as she did a back flip. "Damn that woman and her damn whip" she cursed under her breath as she got in position to attack her training partner the released form of Lau Shimin.

She ran towards Lau Shimin and ducked as his arm tried to hit her head but could do nothing as his other arm hit her stomach and sent her flying. She groaned as Lau Shimin suddenly sat on her stomach in his small form chirping happily.

"You are improving Lulubell, I'm proud of you."

Lulubell smiled s she got up from the floor. "Thanks… but seriously though, do you really need to use that whip? I get nervous each time I hear a snap."

"Think of it as real life training" Cloud said smiling. "If you get scared of a whip what will happen in the field whit akuma shooting bullets everywhere?"

"Good point" Lulubell said and sighed but suddenly looked up as the door to the cargo room opened.

"Exorcist Sama's?"

Lulubell rolled her eyes. "Great, another sailor wanting to display his thanks."

"Be nice Lulubell" Cloud said frowning. "Remember wich side you are on."

"Sorry" Lulubell said low, not sure if she meant it or not.

"What can we do for you sailor?" Cloud asked smiling gently at the man in front of her.

"I thought you should know. We have spotted land; the ship will be docked at the Ivory Coast in about 2 hours."

"Hallelujah, land" Lulubell said groaning in happiness.

Cloud smiled gently. "At least until we get on the next ship tomorrow."

Lulubell groaned. "Great, just great." She did smile though when Lau Shimin jumped onto her shoulder and chirped happily.

A few hours later the ship successfully docked to shore, and the passengers stepped off the boat onto dry land. Lulubell looked around in mild curiosity. Cloud noticed and smiled.

"Never been here before Lulubell?"

"No" Lulubell said whit a small sigh.

"Well then here you go."

Lulubell lifted an eyebrow at Cloud who gave her some money.

"Have fun. I meet you back here in a few hours ok?"

Lulubell just nodded and smiled, heading of in a random direction. Cloud smiled and turned walking her merry way too… at least until she heard her name.

"General Cloud Nyne, please wait up."

She turned to the voice and smiled. Typical Komui, sending that particular exorcist. "Hello there Lenalee san, how are you doing?"

The teenager just smiled and bowed, taking time to regain her breath.

"I am good general, thank you for asking."

"So you are the one who will be whit me and Lulubell until we reach HQ?"

"Hai, my brother had Allen Kun open a way through the ark so I could come to help… So it's true then? We have a Noah on our side."

"Yeah or at least she will be. She is trying her best to fit in, but she still has people problems."

"So where is she?"

"I let her off the leash, she has been on that ship for days, and she needed some outlet."

Lenalee smiled. "So what about some lunch? I am starving."

"Agreed" Cloud said, and the two girls went to get something to eat.

Lulubell smiled as she walked along the busy shore of the Ivory Coast. She smiled munching on some bananas she had bought. It was so much to se and enjoy… at least trying to enjoy.

"Damn it Lust shut your yap, you are ruining my mood."

"Good, you shouldn't enjoy spending time along these worms."

"Lust for the last time we are on their side now, get used to it."

A small "humph" was the only reply she got so she smiled in triumph and went along the way. She stopped as she saw something out of the corner of her eye.

A young girl sat in a chair calmly, a sign and some drawing equipment right at her side. She read the sign and blinked.

'Portrait for 100 West African francs. If not happy whit the results you get your money back.'

She walked up to the girl kind of intrigued.

"You want a portrait ma'am?"

Lulubell looked at the girl. "You draw people as a job?"

"That I do."

Lulubell raised an eyebrow. "You any good?"

"Do I look like I have given back much money?"

Lulubell looked over the girl. Her hair was short and blonde, a red headband tied around her forehead keeping it out of her eyes. She were wearing a white tree buttoned shirt wich the girl herself (by the looks of it) had ripped of some of the arms leaving the arms only down to her elbows. She was wearing a pair of baggy pants sitting good at her waist. All in all she looked poor, but in no way did she look like she was suffering.

Lulubell sighed and counted up 100 CFA giving it to the girl making her blue eyes sparkle and her smile wide. "Please sit down madam, this will not take more than 10 minutes."

"Please don't call me Madam, I feel old. The name is Lulubell."

"Pleasure doing business whit you Lulubell, my name is Kitty."

Kitty smiled dragging up an A3 format paper smacking it up on a wooden board wich she then placed on an easel taking out some charcoal in different grey tones.

"So what's the jewel in your head for?"

"Umm, it's complicated."

"Ah complicated, the acronym for none of my business right?"

Lulubell smiled gently where she sat. "It's not that it's just… very hard to explain without sounding like I belong in a mental clinic."

"The only ones who belong in an asylum are the so called normal people who think they are without faults. Everyone is a bit mad or have their own opinion, that's what makes us humans unique."

"You really are wise for such a young kid. Hey don't start I turn 21 in July, I'm just short."

"Sorry."

"No prob. As for my wisdom… lets just say you get smart quick living alone in the streets."

"You don't have any relatives?"

"I had a brother… we ran away from our home of personal reasons and got job on a ship. We ended up here where he got a friend. He and his friend are now part of some organisation in Europe somewhere. I wasn't allowed to come, I where to young. I lived whit a nice woman for a few years until she died."

"I'm sorry."

"I'm not; she always stole my share of the money my brother sent me from Europe. Very well then Lulubell I'm done."

Kitty turned the picture and Lulubell just stared, stunned at the picture. It was as if she where looking in a mirror. The picture was done in black, white and grey whit the one exception of her stigmata, wich Kitty had done in its emerald green form to make the picture livelier.

"That's amazing."

"Glad you like it."

Lulubell smiled gently. "Thank you, I hope I'll see you again."

"Thanks the same Lulubell."

Lulubell smiled and went on her way smiling gently, for once ignoring Lust who where having a small hissy fit.

"Ah Lulubell, back already?"

Lulubell smiled gently as she saw her sensei sitting under a parasol sipping on a drink. Her smile did falter a little as she saw who sat next to her.

"Ah yes Lulubell I believe you and Lenalee have met before."

"Yeah… sorry bout that."

"No worries, it's from a past life right?"

Lenalee smiled gently looking at Lulubell's forehead. "Sit down Lulubell, get into the shadow."

Lulubell did, trying her best not to look into Lenalee's face. She did however glance down to her ankles and smiled.

"Lenalee Lee, sister of Komui Lee, owner of the only current crystal type innocence."

Lenalee blinked. "How did you…?"

"Do you really think that the earl's side doesn't know who they are fighting? The exorcists aren't the only ones who research for info on their enemies."

Cloud frowned, not liking the tone in Lulubell's voice, as if she spoke to someone under her rank. "Is that tone yours or Lusts?" She asked gently, having been exposed to more than one of Lust's tantrums, even though she couldn't see her.

Lulubell sighed. "My apologies, I didn't mean…."

"Its ok Lulubell you're still new at this. By the way Lenalee here will be joining us on the remainder of our trip."

Lulubell smiled. "Another part of my people person training huh?"

"Something like that yes."

"So what is that?" Lenalee asked curious pointing to the rolled up paper that was the portrait done by Kitty.

Lulubell explained quickly making the other two share a curious look. "May we see?" Cloud asked.

"Feel free."

They did and gaped. "Wow this is good." Lenalee looked at the name at the bottom right corner.

"Kitty Petro huh… wait a minute that name sounds familiar… Petro… Petro… I think that's the name of one of the finders at the order."

Lulubell lifted her head. "She did say she had a brother who worked whit some organisation in Europe, you don't think?"

"I do as a matter of fact… maybe we should go and see her, ask her if she's tired of Africa and want to see Europe."

"Sounds like a plan" Cloud said whit a smile.

"So at once or…?"

"Why not" Lenalee said raising herself from her chair, Cloud doing the same while dragging out some money paying for the drinks she and Lenalee had been drinking.

"Lead the way Lulubell, let's meet this girl."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Kitty had to admit she was surprised as he saw Lulubell come back.

"Yeah Lulubell something I can do for…" She stopped talking as she saw the two women behind her, and the crosses on their chests.

"Ex-ex-exorcists?" She stuttered seeing them standing up from her chair in disbelief. She turned back to Lulubell and her eyes went up to the stigmata again. "So that's what your jewel is for, it's your innocence."

"Guilty as charged."

Lenalee smiled and stepped up. "Lulubell showed us the drawing and I recognised your name… you are Christopher's sister aren't you?"

"That I am, so how is the old loon?"

"Um before we start going into family, could I do something first?"

Lulubell and Lenalee lifted an eyebrow at Cloud who had a bemused smile on her face. She continued to smile as she took a hand inside her uniform and dragged out one of her spare innocence; wich where spinning like mad, before it flew over to Kitty and spun around her once before settling in her hand.

"I-I-Is this an innocence?" Kitty asked disbelief in her voice.

"Yes" Cloud said. "And as you can see, it is reacting to you; wich means it is yours… Congrats, you are a host."

Kitty smile was so big she could possibly swallow a cat whole if she opened her mouth. "So I get to fight in the huge war my brother was talking about? Bashing hollows, giving a few Noah's a black eye?"

Lulubell flinched at the thought not really feeling any better when Lenalee gently patted her back in sympathy.

"So seriously though, I get to leave this dump?"

"That you can" Cloud Nyne said smiling, thinking to herself, 'another student… let's see what this does whit Lulubell's people skills.'

Kitty smiled then turned to her stuff. "Hey is it ok that I get this back to my shed and get some of my stuff?"

"Sure" Lenalee said whit a smile. "Our ship doesn't go until tomorrow anyways."

Kitty smiled and quickly closed up her stand. "It's down this way" she said pointing down an alley starting to walk. The others followed and soon they where at Kitty's… home.

"OK I will be the first to admit I'm not good whit people and their habits, but I don't think a human is supposed to live like this" Lulubell said pointing at Kitty's small shack.

It wasn't much, a small 1 room house, the walls and roof made by some wavy metal that by closer inspection was made of tin. The door was a simple cloth hanging in front of the opening.

"It's not much" Kitty said honesty smiling slightly. "But it keeps a roof over my head when it rains, and my neighbour is a kind man who let's his dog sleep out in front of my house in case of burglary… not that I have anything worth stealing."

She went up to where a dog lay, unlike anything Lulubell had seen. "Is that a mixed breed?"

"No" Kitty said smiling. "It's a Rhodesian Ridgeback, also known as an African lion dog."

She scratched the dog and untied his rope holding him at a pole near her house.

"Feel free to enter and sit down, I just need to deliver Simba here."

"Simba?" Lenalee asked quizzically. "What kind of name is that?"

"It means lion in Swahili" Cloud said walking inside shaking her head. "How can the girl live like this?"

Lulubell and Lenalee followed eyes goggling at the sight. The room was as bad as it was outside, the only things in the room various drawing supplies, a plastic mattress and a blanket, probably serving as Kitty's bed as well as an Asian mask in the likeness of a tiger, sitting on a small home made desk made of 2 wooden crates and a broken surfboard. Lulubell went over to it lifting it up looking at the mask, carved from wood.

"I always wanted to go to Asia."

The tree girls turned and saw Kitty who walked inside looking at Lulubell who where holding the mask.

"My brother knew how much I wanted to go, so when he went to a mission in China he bought that mask and sent it to me here… it was one of the last things I got before I was kicked out of the house because I had no money and couldn't pay rent… it's my most precious item."

Kitty smiled and walked over taking out a hand to take the mask from Lulubell, blinking as her innocence suddenly came charging out from it's hiding place in Kitty's pockets towards the mask where it suddenly liquefied itself and landed on the mask as a layer of sealing wax. Kitty blinked taking her mask from Lulubell who where still holding it.

"Guess the mask will be my weapon somehow… I wonder how that will work."

"Hey the innocence works in mysterious ways Lenalee said whit a smile. So what do you need to pack?"

"My mask of course, and some of my drawing supply, not much though, and nothing bigger than A3 format. And of course some spare clothes… that should do it."

Kitty smiled as she finished packing the little she owned into a small bag and hoisted it over her shoulder.

"OK done."

"Well then let's head out" Cloud said. "I have reserved a room at a nearby hotel until tomorrow; thank god all they had left was a 4 man room."

And with that they left, Kitty stopping for about 3 seconds to look back at the small shack she left behind.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Kitty and Lulubell goggled as they entered the hotel they where staying at.

"OK this had better not be a dream" Kitty said smiling as she looked around.

"No dream" Cloud said smiling. "Now let's get checked in and then we can get something to eat before we take an early night, we need to get up early tomorrow."

Cloud and Lenalee walked ahead, Kitty and Lulubell walking behind, not really sure how to deal. Sure Lulubell had been to fancy places before, with Cyril's crowd... but still, this was different.

"Something wrong Lulubell?" Kitty smiled gently up at the taller woman, Lulubell shaking her head.

"No, it's nothing, really."

"Hey come on you two, our rooms are this way."

Lulubell sighed at Lenalee.

"Why in the world did they send the preppy one?" She muttered walking up to Cloud and Lenalee.

"Kitty and Lenalee you will have room 211, Lulubell you and I will take room 212."

Lulubell just nodded, silently telling herself that if they hadn't done that she'd risk killing Lenalee in her sleep, the girl was to happy for Lulubell to handle.

"Dinner is served in 10 minutes; at least that was what the clerk said… so what do you want to do in the meantime?"

Lulubell smiled as she sat down in a chair dragging out her pack of cards making a solitaire. Cloud Nyne sighed.

"You know it wouldn't kill you if you where more social."

"Yes it would" Lulubell said roughly, then blinked and looked up. "Sorry, that was lust talking… I try to make her realise but… It's hard."

Cloud just sighed. "This is why I originally asked Komui to send someone. I thought that with more people around I could do something about that hate for humans you have."

"You could have asked for someone less… bubbly."

"Oh come on, she's not that bad. Compared to whom?"

"Yuu Kanda… Bookman… Cross… Allen Walker."

Cloud stopped as Lulubell decided to play 52 pick up as the cards fell from her hands.

"Sorry" Cloud said. "He is a bad memory for you right?"

"That's one way of putting it" Lulubell said taking up her final card from the floor.

Cloud smiled. "Get used to it; you are probably going to meet him soon anyways."

Cloud smiled as Lau Shimin jumped over to Lulubell and gave the female Noah a hug sensing the Noah turning moody. "Come on, it's time for dinner."

…………

Lulubell gulped. She looked at the menu, her eyes flickering over it in panic.

"Anything the matter Lulubell?"

She looked up as Kitty laid down her own menu.

"N-n-no not really" Lulubell said lying through her teeth. "So what do you want?"

"Well number 30 sounds good" Kitty said, Lulubell groaning inside herself.

"Yeah" she said browsing over the menu again.

Lenalee and Cloud shared a confused look and looked over at Lulubell wondering what was up. But it was Kitty who finally laid two and two together.

"Lulubell… you do know how to read right?"

Lulubell closed her eyes and laid the menu down. "No… I don't."

Cloud and Lenalee blinked, Kitty sitting closer to Lulubell.

"All right then we have to help you right? So what do you fancy? Fish? Steak? Duck?"

"Um… fish sounds good."

"OK let's see… Ah there is one here that looks really good."

As Kitty helped Lulubell out Lenalee turned to Cloud.

"They look like they are getting along."

Cloud smiled. "They find themselves in a similar situation, leaving everything they knew behind to start a new life, not knowing what will happen… I seem to remember another girl who got scared when she figured out what was in store for her."

Lenalee sighed, not really wanting to think back at that part of her life.

"All right then we are ready to order" Kitty said with a smile, Cloud nodded getting eye contact with the waiter.

………………

Lulubell sighed as she lay down in her bed at the hotel. She was so stuffed, that fish tasted so good. She groaned as she felt Cloud's eyes on herself. "What?"

"Just trying to figure out what to do whit your… reading disorder."

Lulubell just huffed, looking up as there was a knock on the door. "Enter" Cloud said, smiling as Kitty walked in. "Yes Ms Petro?"

"Lenalee is sleeping; I think she ate too much… I was wondering if I could stay here for a while."

"Of course, please find a place to get comfortable."

Kitty smiled and sat down dragging out her drawing supplies. "By the way Lulubell, I made this for you."

She gave Lulubell a bunch of papers with drawn items and letters on. "It' to help you learning the alphabet."

"How?" Lulubell asked. Kitty pointed to the first drawing. "What is that?"

"An apple so?"

"An apple starts with wich letter? Um… A?"

"So wich letter do you think that is" Kitty said pointing to the letter.

"…A?"

"See you got it. Get through the alphabet and we'll have you reading in no time."

Cloud smiled. Lulubell was bonding with Kitty, tomorrow they where heading towards Europe, and so far, there had been no sightings of any of Lulubell's siblings. Life felt good.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"ARGH WHY CANT I DO THIS RIGHT?"

Lulubell smiled in spite of herself, looking over to where Kitty stood training with Cloud Nyne. The last few days had gone by in a blur. The ship they had gone on had been travelling for 2 days already, and Cloud had figured it was time to see what Kitty's innocence could do. So Kitty had gotten her mask, placed it in front of her face and activated it. Lulubell had to say that she was impressed.

The mask had somehow melted on to Kitty's face, giving the girl some tiger like features, like a triangular nose, some stripes on her face, point ears and a tail. The problem Kitty was having was that she had no idea what good this was, as she didn't know what powers she had. Heck the only difference she felt was a small difference in her point of balance, making her lean forward on one hand, bending her legs slightly.

Lulubell sighed looking back on the papers Kitty had given her, trying to memorise the alphabet. She had gotten pretty far already, even learned how to write her name. Lulubell sighed, remembering how Kitty had acted when she had told her that she was a Noah. She had been a bit shocked… but in stead of reacting in fear and hate as Lulubell had thought she'd do, she just hugged her and said she was sorry that Lulubell had been forced out of her family because of the innocence. She sighed once again and stood up.

"Oh for crying out loud Kitty you are driving me mad."

Lenalee, who had been relaxing in a chair next to Lulubell opened her eyes, about to admonish her about saying hurtful things when Lulubell walked over to Kitty.

"My Noah powers centred on transformation, and I have turned into many animals over the years, favouring felines. Now trust me when I say that there are few things that are stronger than a tiger. Try lifting something heavy, see if that helps."

Kitty smiled. "Thanks Lulubell."

"No problem" Lulubell said turning to sit down again, frowning at the shocked looks Lenalee and Cloud Nyne gave her.

"What?"

"I am so proud of you" Cloud said, trying her best not to cry.

"She is acting more and more human for each day it' a miracle" Lenalee said, Lulubell huffing, sitting down to concentrate on her alphabet again.

"Hey Sensei, I think I got it" Kitty said exited, Lulubell looking up, grinning gently as Kitty was holding up the high chair that belonged to the lifeguard at the pool in one hand, the poor lifeguard still sitting in it. Cloud sighed gently, Lenalee trying her best not to laugh.

"That's nice Kitty… now let the poor lifeguard down."

Kitty blinked and looked up. "Wops… sorry miss, my bad."

Kitty smiled as she sat down the chair, the lifeguard walking off muttering that she didn't get paid enough for this.

"OK so I am super strong what else can I do?" Kitty asked smiled as she turned to Cloud Nyne.

"I honestly don't know it is up to you to figure out what your powers are."

Kitty nodded. "I honestly don't care; I am feeling so powerful, like a pack of lionesses…"

She stopped talking as her mask and tail changed. Lulubell actually blinked in curiosity as Kitty now looked like a lioness.

"Wow" Kitty said. "I can turn into a lioness too?"

She took a step to the side and both Lenalee, Cloud and Lulubell jolted backwards in shock.

"What?" Kitty asked and was shocked to hear that her voice was two fold. She looked to her side and yelped, as at the same place she had been standing was an exact copy of herself.

"I get it Lulubell" said smiling. "Lions work in a pack. So when you said lioness you turned into it and now you can make copies of yourself to make a pack of strong lionesses. The tiger works best alone so in tiger mode you are at your strongest. See what else you can do."

Kitty nodded and felt strange as the clone understood that it was not needed and walked into Kitty. Kitty called out all feline names she could, no one giving her anything, until…

"Cheetah?"

Lulubell smiled as Kitty got spots and yellowish fur, complete with black streaks from her eyes down to the corners of her mouth.

"Well" Cloud said smiling. "I think we all know what a cheetah is good at, try running; let's see how fast you can go."

Kitty did with pleasure. 5 minutes later the captain of the ship decided to stop drinking as he swore he saw a girl with a tail running along the water waving to the dolphins at the front of the boat.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

3 days after Kitty's discovery of her innocence the ship docked in Barcelona Spain.

"Thank god land" Lulubell groaned as she touched the ground off the gangplank.

Kitty giggled, as she had fun on the ship, training a little bit everyday against Lulubell, Lenalee and Cloud Nyne, getting a little bit stronger each day. Lulubell sighed as she looked around.

"Barcelona… heard a lot about this place from Tyki."

Lenalee frowned, she too remembering the hunt for the generals, and the destruction made by the Noah's and the Akuma.

"So where do we go from here?" Kitty asked.

Cloud sighed and stretched. "Well there is a finder scheduled to meet us with a carriage in about 3 hours time, so we can relax and do what we want until then."

"All right lets go…"

BOOM.

Everyone looked up as a huge explosion was heard.

"What was that?" Kitty asked, not really liking the screams and continuing explosions.

"Sounds like work" Lulubell said with a sigh.

"Damn those akuma do they never learn?" Cloud Nyne frowned. "Let's go and kick some akuma's butt. Remember Petro, if you are hit, you'll be dead."

"Yeah I know" Kitty said, taking out her mask as they ran up to the street to where the commotion came from. What they saw made the 3 experienced persons groan.

"Three level two's" Lulubell said with a sigh.

"Hey is that an akuma?" Kitty asked, pointing at a person on the ground.

"No" Lulubell said.

"How can you be sure?" Lenalee asked.

"If she was, why is the akuma hovering over her ready for feasting?"

"Innocence activate."

The Akuma looked up, seeing nothing but a huge monkey racing at them. Soon, both Kitty, Lulubell and Lenalee was in the fight, the tree akuma's having no chance whatsoever, before they vanished, the soul getting released from it's cursed bond. Lulubell stood up, letting her innocence deactivate, ignoring lust who again was shouting her mouth off before turning to the girl who had been attacked by the akuma.

"You ok there kid?"

"Y-y-yes" the girl stuttered, getting off the ground. "W-w-what was those creatures? One minute I am sightseeing, the next I know the street I am walking in explodes and those creatures come shooting around them."

As the other 3 started explaining things to the girl, Lulubell could swear she felt someone looking at her. She looked around and saw nothing, still having a bad feeling about the rest of the trip back to HQ.

And as she turned around, a level 2 Akuma sighed and teleported away, not looking forward to telling this to the Earl.

"I am Aiki Tenno" the girl said.

"Lenalee Lee."

"Kitty Petro."

"Lulubell Noah."

"Nice to meet you, I am Cloud Nyne, this is Lau Shimin."

Aiki smiled as Lau Shimin jumped on her blond haired head and started looking for bugs. Then Cloud blinked and took her hand inside her uniform, taking out the last spare innocence she was carrying wich was floating and shining green.

"Oh come on" Lulubell said in disbelief. "How do this always happen?"

"I have no clue, but I am not complaining" Lenalee said.

Aiki just stared at them blinking; finally asking if someone could explain to her what was going on. As Cloud opened her mouth to explain however, the innocence charged at Aiki's pocket. She frowned and took up a pair of fans, now glittering green of the innocence. She blinked and turned to Cloud Nyne.

"Why is my favourite pair of fans glittering?"

Cloud sighed. "Let's find a place to sit down; this could take some time to explain."

………

After about 3 hours of explaining, Aiki happily joined the gang of female exorcists, exclaiming that she always wanted to go out on an adventure.

"All right, what now?" Kitty asked.

Cloud Nyne looked up at a nearby clock tower smiling.

"Well our carriage is destined to meet us at the Sagrada familia soon, so we should head there fast."

"The what?" Kitty asked.

"The big church" Lenalee said smiling. "It has been standing unfinished for ages."

"Well let's go" Aiki said standing up. "Time is being wasted sitting around here."

And as they started walking towards the Sagrada Familia, Lulubell sniffed silently once.

Lenalee frowned. "Hey Lulubell, you ok?"

"Y-y-yeah" Lulubell said with a sigh.

Lenalee didn't buy it. "Lulubell?"

"It's nothing" Lulubell insisted. "It was just…" she sighed. "For one moment when Aiki held up her innocence fans with a big smile on her face, screaming out encouragements, just for one small moment, I was reminded about Mimi."

Lenalee smiled gently, remembering the akuma who had made both her, Allen, Lavi and Krory's life hell. She had died, and it was clear that the loss still was heavy on the heart for poor Lulubell. All Lenalee could do was to ruffle Lulubell's hair, trying her best to cheer her up.

"Hey no dwelling on the past, trust me when I say it will only lead to misery."

Lulubell nodded and sighed trying her best to smile. "Yeah you are right of course… come on; let's get out of here, too many people around."

"What? You still have people problems?"

"Not really no, but I am getting more and more like an exorcist, I don't know how many of the people around me is people and who are akuma, it makes me paranoid."

And with that Lulubell walked up to catch up with the other 3, who where chatting along about this and that, trying to ignore the feeling of someone glaring at her back


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

True enough, once the small group of exorcists came to the Sagrada Familia, a carriage was waiting for them. Aiki who was the newest one in the group marvelled of the service they got just for being chosen by the innocence.

"All right everyone, get a seat" Cloud said giving Lulubell a warning look.

Lulubell who had been giving a finder a smile equal to a cat grinning at a mouse walked inside the carriage and sat down at a window seat her back towards the driver. She was soon followed by Kitty who sat next to her, Aiki who sat opposite Lulubell on the other side of the carriage's seats, and Lenalee who sat next to Aiki.

Cloud turned to the finders. "We need to get to HQ as fast as possible, but don't strain the horses to much. When we cross the border I want to know about it, is that clear?"

"Hai general Cloud Sama."

"Good… and Arthur… I'm sorry about Lulubell; she is trying her hardest to fit in."

"It's no problem ma'am, I understand."

Cloud smiled and climbed onto the carriage and sat down next to Lenalee.

"All right ladies we have a long trip ahead of us. We will be notified when we cross the border. I suggest we use the time we have till then to get all facts about each other on the table, trust is essential from 1 exorcist to another. Lulubell why don't you start?"

Lulubell sighed. "This is for the look I gave the finder right?"

"Just start Lulubell."

"Hai." Lulubell looked towards Aiki. "As mentioned before, the exorcist live to defeat the millennium earl and his akuma… and also on his team, the earl has the Noah family."

Aiki nodded understanding so far.

"The Noah family is descendants from Noah's family from Noah's ark, and each one of the 14 members has one of the original Noah's feelings."

Aiki continued to nod, still following, Kitty to listening in. All she knew about the Noah's was what her brother had told her through letters.

"Currently" Lulubell said with a sigh. "2 Noah's are traitors to the rest of the family. One is the 14th Noah; better known as the musician… he was tracked down and killed by the rest of the family."

"And the other?" Aiki asked.

"That would be me" Lulubell said with a sigh. "Also 1 Noah is dead, thanks to the exorcist, but else than that, the entire family is alive."

Lenalee looked up from her seat. "What? But Krory defeated 2 Noah's… ok they counted as 1, but still."

"You mean Jasdevi?" Lulubell said with a small smirk. "Not dead, only in a coma for about 4 weeks."

Lenalee groaned. "Oh man Krory is not going to like this."

"Anyways" Lulubell said continuing to talk. "As I said each Noah has his or hers special ability that only they can use. Mine is transformation, I can turn into anything I want… or at least could, I don't know if it still works."

"What do you mean?" Kitty asked.

"Well the Noah powers and the innocence are each others weaknesses. And because of the innocence in my forehead, each time I go Noah so to speak, my head starts to throb."

"What do you mean going Noah?" Aiki asked, being slightly intrigued.

Lulubell sighed and looked to Cloud, as if asking for permission. Cloud sighed but nodded.

Lulubell smiled and looked towards Aiki again, Aiki jumping slightly as Lulubell's skin turned grey. Lulubell smiled as she felt the stigmata's in her forehead appearing, and noticed her hair turning black.

Kitty blinked in amazement as Lulubell's eyes turned golden yellow finishing the transformation.

"I am going to be honest with you" Lulubell said mostly to Kitty and Aiki. "If you meet anyone who looks like this, and know that you are an exorcist… you will die."

"That's enough Lulubell" Cloud said scowling. "Enough with the scaring, you can turn back now before your headache starts again."

Lulubell nodded and turned back to her human self again, slightly shaking her head. "Man that hurt" she muttered rubbing her forehead. "Right then, enough back story, I am the 5th Noah, The Noah of lust, and as most Noah's I am not a people person. In fact, if this innocence hadn't come and forced itself on me I would most likely be plotting on destroying mankind right this very minute. But, here I am, and if I refuse to help out, I am as good as dead… I try my best to become a better person, but it's harder then you think."

Kitty smiled and hugged Lulubell. "Aww it's ok Lulu we are here for you."

Lulubell huffed, blushing, not really comfortable with visible affection.

"Very well then if that is all you wish to share" Cloud said with a smile, Lulubell nodding and drew out her deck of cards again to lay down a new solitaire.

"Very well Lenalee, why don't you go next?"

Lenalee nodded and started to talk; smiling to her self as she noticed that even Lulubell was listening, even if she was trying hard to hide it.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

After Lenalee had finished her own story of more or less kidnapping and attempts to run away Kitty came with a question.

"So… we are the good guys… right?"

Lulubell quickly placed some fingers in her mouth and bit hard, to not answer the girl's question, something Cloud took notice of.

"Yes, we are the good guys, although some in our organization go to extremes to get to our goal."

"Which is?" Aiki asked.

"We told you" Cloud said getting comfortable again. "To defeat the Millennium earl and the Noah's who are bent on world destruction, and to bring peace to all humanity. We are the only ones who can." Cloud turned to Kitty. "And you Kitty your life story please?"

Kitty smiled. "Not much to talk about really, me and my older brother Chris ran away from home when I was very young, we were sick of getting beaten by our parents. We got on a boat and worked there until we reached the Ivory Coast. We meet this family and their son. Chris loved the place at once. We lived there all one happy family until something happened. I don't remember the exact details, I was only 13 at the time, but I remember the important parts. An exorcist came to hunt for an innocence, and told Chris and Tucker… that was our friend, about the war. Chris and tucker were both 18 and wanted to join. I wasn't allowed to come. They left me with Tuckers mother and father. After a while Tuckers father died in the jungle, bad hunting accident. Tuckers mom fell into despair because she relied on her husband for money. It went a few months before she started selling the family silver, her possessions… herself."

Everybody winced.

"After a while she started taking my things, things my brother sent me from his many journeys around the world. Then about a few years back she died and I was left to fend for myself… and then you came. That's all I want to talk about."

"Of course" Cloud said nodding, understanding Kitty's reluctantly to talk about her life living on the streets.

Aiki hugged Kitty and smiled. "Well you are with us now that's all that matters."

Kitty smiled and nodded. "Yeah. And you Aiki?"

Aiki shrugged. "Not much I can tell you actually, I woke up about a month ago inside a hospital in Barcelona with a lump on my head as big as an egg, I remembered my name and nothing else, and when I think about it that might be a good thing, why dwell on the past?"

"Amen" Kitty said yelping as the wagon stopped.

Finder Arthur opened the door and bowed. "We have crossed the border General."

"Very well, thank you Arthur."

Cloud smiled and turned to the rest of the girls. "We will camp here for the night. Now then, let's get out, we need to train."

Kitty and Lulubell who knew what that meant groaned.

"What?" Aiki asked a little nervous.

"Just listen to a friendly advice" Lulubell said as she stepped out of the wagon. "If you hear a whip, duck!"

* * *

Lulubell could do nothing more than to sigh were she sat next to Lenalee and Kitty. Aiki was trying out her new innocence for the first time.

"What?" Kitty asked noticing Lulubell who looked sad.

"I think Lulubell is having a flashback moment" Lenalee said with a small smile.

"It's Mimi all over again, it's scary" Lulubell said.

True enough, Aiki's fans where green instead of Mimi's grey with the yin and yang symbol, but else it was the same thing, the fan's swirled and made small tornado's, and the ends were sharp enough to cut through metal… just like Mimi's.

"Who's Mimi?" Kitty asked.

Lulubell turned to Lenalee. "Feel free to tell her." Lenalee smiled and turned to Kitty and told the entire story of Mimi, at least how she knew it.

Kitty blinked when she was finished. "So this Mimi used fans huh?"

"Hai," Lulubell said. "She was my… partner… in more ways than one. She always seemed to know what to do to make me feel better, not to mention all the times she decided she wanted to do my hands, never had a more prefect manicure."

Lulubell sighed and rose. "Well Kitty, how about a small workout?"

"Sure" Kitty said smiling, taking up her newly baptized mask of tiger.

Cloud looked up and noticed that the two girls had risen and motioned for Aiki to stop. The finders too looked with interest. This was after all a Noah. Who knew what would happen.

"All right, ground rules" Lulubell said. "This is a friendly spar. No aiming for places you know will be hard to heal. The first one who yields loses."

"Sounds ok for me" Kitty said smiling placing her mask in front of her. "Innocence activate."

Lulubell smiled, being careful to look towards the finders. "Innocence… activate."

She smiled as she felt fangs grow and her skin, eyes and hair change color. She twitched her arms when her nails turned into claws and stood in a ready position.

"Well then Petro, let's see what you got."

Kitty lunged and she and Lulubell went at it. The finders could do little else than to gape.

About 15 minutes later Cloud Nyne shaked her head and placed a wet cloth over the back of Lulubell's head.

"You two should be more careful" she admonished them.

"Sorry" Kitty said again, probably for the 30th time. "I tried to hold back but it went automatically, I'm sorry I kicked you in the head."

"No problem" Lulubell said, "the pain is more or less gone, now if only Lust would stop screaming about filth and exorcists I will be fine."

Lulubell groaned and rolled her eyes as lust was screaming bloody murder.

"DAMN IT LUST WE ARE ON THEIR SIDE SHUT THE F**K UP."

Lulubell smacked her head and groaned. "Ouch."

Aiki and Kitty giggled and Lenalee gave Lulubell another wet towel.

"You should take it easy."

"Yeah I guess your…" Lulubell stopped and looked up. "Did you hear that?"

Everyone stiffened, and listened. Suddenly a boy came walking out of the woods. Lulubell rose and gave Cloud Nyne a look that clearly said, get ready to fight.

"Who are you?" Lenalee asked, not liking this either, they were too far out from civilization for this kid to just be lost. The kid looked from one person to another.

"I'm Billy; I have run away from home."

Lulubell walked up. "Let me handle this" she said.

"How exactly?" Cloud asked, her tone suggesting that Lulubell still had long to go with her people skills.

"If it's an akuma it must be a level 2 or it hadn't spoken" Lulubell said. "And level 2's take a long time to turn into, at least 3 weeks. We have only been on the road for about 2 which means that if it is an akuma… I still have powers over him."

What do you mean?" Lenalee asked.

"The earl makes sure that all the akuma's are made with a code that gives the Noah's control over them. They are animals without it and would attack even us if we were on their side… so let's try this."

Lulubell walked up to the boy who didn't really look scared, more restless.

"Fanged panthress… activate."

Billy walked back a few steps as Lulubell's face turned grey.

"You see kid I'm kind of special… but looking at your angry face I think you already knew that."

She smiled in spite of herself as the kid indeed suddenly had a pentagram on his face.

"Sensei, get the others ready to leave, if there is one here, then others are nearby."

Lulubell loomed over Billy who scowled at her with hate. "How long have you been following us?"

"I will tell you nothing traitor" Billy said dragging out a knife from his belt and lunged.

Lulubell just smiled. "Stop" she said firmly and the boy stopped in mid air and fell to the ground groaning.

Lulubell dragged him up. "I'm afraid this is the end for you, rest in peace."

She held out her clawed hand and without mercy slit the boy's throat. She sighed and deactivated her innocence.

"Let's go" she called, the finders not bothering to argue. If a Noah believed more akuma was coming it meant that more akuma was probably coming their way. It wasn't longer than about 3 minutes later that their carriage was suddenly ambushed by 3 level 1 akumas.

"Aiki, deal with this would you?" Cloud asked, Aiki nodding from her place and dragged out her fans.

"Be careful to not let them hit you" Kitty said, afraid that she might lose her friend.

"Yeah I know" Aiki said leaning out the window. "Innocence activate."

She held out her fans and in one swift moment sent a hurricane blowing sending all the akuma's flying and exploding. She sat back in again.

"Well that takes care of that" Aiki said smiling.

"May I be blunt?" Lenalee asked.

"Sure" Cloud said smiling.

"You are out of spare innocence right?"

"Yes I am."

"And we aren't out looking for spare innocence at the moment… wouldn't it be wise to ask Allen to open up the gate so we don't have to travel the long way to HQ? No point in us being out here without a mission when we can get to the base, not to mention we might be killed on the road to HQ… seems like a waste, not to mention the akuma's might have figured out our route. We finished these ones yes, but there will be more."

"I hate to say it but I agree with her" Lulubell said.

Cloud sighed thinking. "You are right" she said after a while. "We'll stop at the first town and make contact with HQ. No point in risking our lives for nothing."

Lulubell sighed. "Wow this day came faster than I would have liked" she muttered, Lenalee smiling gently.

"Don't worry Lulubell; you'll be fine… after a little while."

"Yeah and you still have us, even if no one else will trust you" Kitty said then blinked. "Wait that didn't came out right."

Aiki could do nothing else than to laugh, and even Lulubell gave a small smile. "Thanks Kitty, that's nice of you."

And with that Lulubell sat back trying to relax and not think about what awaited her in the near future


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Too soon for Lulubell's taste the carriage entered a small village.

"All right then" Cloud said attaching her golem to a phone she had borrowed at a nearby inn.

Reever quickly answered. "Yes?"

"This is General Cloud Nyne."

Cloud smiled as she heard Reever falling off his chair. "Is there something wrong general?"

"Well it depends on your view" she said. "I am out of spare innocence and me and my new students aren't technically out on a mission, and it's dangerous out here… we wondered if Walker could be so kind as to open up a way for us to HQ?"

"And by us you mean…"

Cloud rolled her eyes. "Me, the finders, Lenalee and my 3 students, Petro, Tenno and Noah!"

Reever was silent for a little while. "I'll talk with the supervisor and Allen, we'll track you down by your golem, most likely we will see you soon General."

"Thank you Reever."

"No problem general."

Cloud hung up and turned around where the rest of the crew stood, Lulubell looking pale.

"Take a deep breath Lulubell" Kitty said noticing the pale look on the Noah's face.

"Let's wait outside" Lulubell muttered. "I need the air."

They walked out and waited. About 5 minutes later Lenalee smiled and Lulubell groaned as they felt the ark appearing, a small white plate forming.

"Wow" Kitty and Aiki said, gawking at the sight.

Then someone came out of the ark and Lulubell sighed and rose.

"Hello there Walker, how are you doing?" She asked, trying to hide the fact that she was scared as hell.

Allen blinked as he saw her. "Lulubell? You are the Noah who's an exorcist now?"

"Nobody told you?" Lulubell asked.

"No one knew except Komui and he was insistent on holding it a secret" Allen said. "I'm actually relieved, I feared that it was Road; I would never have any peace."

"True" Lulubell said. "She does have an unhealthy obsession of you."

"Shall we go?" Allen asked. "It's safer to talk about this at HQ."

Allen smiled and beaconed for everyone to follow him inside the ark. As Lulubell walked in he muttered to her so only she could hear. "There is a welcoming party at the other side, if I were you I'd do something to make amends for the last time you walked in there!"

"Arigato" Lulubell said nodding.

Allen looked at her and noticed the green stigmata. "Parasitic huh?"

"Yeah I've started getting used to it."

"Holly crap this place is sweet."

Lulubell smiled at Kitty's enthusiasm. "She really get's impressed out of nothing. So which way out of here?"

"So eager to say sorry Lulubell?" Cloud asked coming up next to Lulubell and Allen.

"I just want to get this over with; I've been dreading this day for 2 weeks now, time to close my eyes, take a deep breath and jump into the chaos."

"Very well" Allen said pointing to a door. "There is the door."

Everyone stopped and Lulubell just gulped.

"Ladies first" Allen said smiling, Lulubell scowled.

"You're enjoying this aren't you?"

"Oh you have no idea" Allen said.

"Come on Lulubell we'll go together" Kitty said, Aiki just nodding agreeing.

"Oh for the love of God I'll go" Cloud said walking past them, Lau Shimin chirping happy. Cloud Nyne walked through the door, Lenalee following. Lulubell sighed, took a deep breath and walked in the door.

The quietness was almost unbearable. Lulubell looked up from the floor and saw that there indeed was a welcoming comity. Consisting of exorcists, finders and scientists. She stepped up and saw that all eyes were on her.

"All right" she said holding up her hands. "I get it, I am sorry. I am sorry that I was born into a family that wants to destroy the world; I am sorry I walked into the former HQ and killed many of your friends and family. If I could turn back time and try to hinder what I did I would, but I can't… But I really am sorry. I don't know if it is any consolation to any of you that my family members is now out to kill me… all I can think is that you think I deserve it, and you are probably right."

Lulubell sighed again and fell to one knee, her head downcast. "All I ask is that you won't hate me for what I have done, please forgive me." She finished up and she heard footsteps walking up to her.

"Lulubell Noah, my name is Komui Lee… we talked for about 2 weeks ago."

Lulubell looked up into Komui's face. She remembered the conversation. He looked at her and a hand gently brushed over her innocence.

"I only have one thing to say to you" Komui said. He smiled gently and held out a hand. "Welcome home."

Lulubell goggled but stood up and took his hand. "Thanks" she said smiling gently.

Komui nodded and turned to Kitty and Aiki. "That goes for you too, welcome home."

"Thanks" Aiki said smiling, Kitty still looking around in amazement.

"Well I should go" Lenalee said smiling. "I need some sleep."

"I need to eat" Allen said heading towards the kitchen.

Komui smiled. "Well I should let someone give you a tour… ah Lavi come here would you?"

Lavi came up smiling. "Hai I know, give them a tour, I'll see to…" he stopped talking; he and Aiki had looked at each other.

Aiki smiled to Kitty. "Bull's-eye" she said Kitty shaking her head, Lulubell rolling her eyes as Lavi finally spoke again.

"Strike!"

"Lavi" Komui said a little louder now. "The tour?"

"Ah right, right, follow me ladies."

"See you guys later" Komui said smiling, Lulubell and Cloud giving each other a small look as if to say talk to you later.

"OK now this is our training hall" Lavi said pointing around to show the three new people what was what. "And this is our sleeping quarters, we call this place home. Each exorcist has their own room to sleep in here when not on a mission. This is the food court… oy where are you going?"

"Parasitic innocence, I need food" Lulubell yelled over her shoulder hurrying over to Jerry. "Hi I'd like 3 gallons of milk, 5 plates of steamed tuna and a stuffed turkey please."

"Wow" Lavi said.

"Yeah, first time she said please on her own accord I'm impressed" Aiki said and Kitty laughed.

"Oh hush" Lulubell said as she sat down and started eating. "Having a parasitic innocence is tough, and here the food is free, it's like heaven."

"Tell me about it."

Lulubell looked up from her fish and saw Allen. "Hey there Allen, how are you doing?" Lavi asked.

"Pretty good now thanks" Allen said.

"How come you don't have a lapdog?" Lulubell asked.

"Excuse me?"

"Well last time I was here I heard you were under surveillance for suspicion of being on the Earl's side, and was forced to have a lapdog at all times… what was his name? Link?"

"Yeah he was" Allen said frowning. "But then Leverrier died and the higher ups decided I had nothing to do with the Earl other than a wish to destroy him, so I am now a free exorcist."

"No such thing" Lulubell said as she started drinking her milk.

"Well aren't we a happy camper?" Lavi said, trying to be gentle as he knew that he was after all talking with a Noah.

"Yeah well answer me this, how many are currently scowling over in my direction?"

Everyone looked up and suddenly realized that the entire cafeteria quickly tried to not look as if they had been looking.

"My point exactly" Lulubell said rising from her chair as she finished her food. "Now then Lavi you were giving us a tour?"

"Y-Yeah… this way… fellow exorcist."

Lulubell smiled as the last part was more directed at the finders and exorcists who had been scowling.

"Now then we are almost finished, this is the science department… oh hey there Johnny how are you?"

Lulubell looked over and saw a small man with glasses and a pair of headphones staring at Lulubell who could have sworn she had seen this guy before.

"Have we met?" She asked, Lavi going over to whisper in her ear.

"You pierced his shoulder with your arm and unleashed the level 3 Akuma's at the old HQ."

Lulubell's face changed from quizzically to understanding and then to pain. "Ohhh… oh… Sorry about that."

"We'll I'm alive at least" Johnny said gently. "You are the 3 new exorcists right?" He asked mostly looking at Lulubell's emerald stigmata.

"Yes we are" Aiki said smiling.

"Then I would like it if you could stay here for a little while, we need your measurements for your new uniforms."

"Sure, no problem" Kitty said lining up as Johnny and 2 other scientists dragged out measurement tapes.

"All right then, let's get this over with, shall we?"

Lulubell could do nothing but to sigh and hold out her arms as a scientist gently started measuring the length from her shoulder to her hand.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

About 5 minutes later Lavi continued the tour, Lulubell thinking silently to herself that she had a bad feeling about where this tour was going to end.

"OK last place ladies, this is the medical wing. If you get hurt, this is where you will end up." Lavi smiled and inched closer to Lulubell, Kitty and Aiki.

"Do as the head nurse tell you or she will find more reason to hold you in her ward."

Just as the words were out of his mouth he flew 3 feet away as bookman came, crushing his leg into Lavi's head, yelling about insolent youth.

"Should we help?" Kitty asked.

Lulubell shrugged. "Do whatever you wish" she said not really giving a damn.

"Ah ladies, finished with the tour?"

Kitty, Aiki and Lulubell turned towards Komui who smiled.

"We need you to come in here real quick, so we can take a better look at your innocence… Why don't you go first Lulubell?"

"I knew it" Lulubell grumped walking inside the medic ward sitting down in the sterile room.

"Now then activate your innocence could you?" Komui asked as he closed the door.

Lulubell nodded activating her innocence.

"Right then" Komui said smiling, completely ignoring her dark skin and hair. "Let's look at those fangs first shall we?"

A few minutes later Lulubell walked out, a small pained expression on her face.

"What's wrong Lulubell?" Kitty asked.

Lulubell just whimpered.

"She had a few cavities" Komui said smiling. "Let her be while the anesthetic wears off." Lulubell scowled in his direction, something Komui didn't really seem to care about. "Now then miss Petro if you could follow me?"

After a while all 3 women had had their innocence looked at, and Komui smiled.

"One last place for you to see girls and then you can do whatever you want."

"Thank god" Kitty said, stretching. She was starting to feel tired from their trip.

Komui walked through a door the girls following only to gape as they suddenly stood on a platform over a huge hole. The platform started to sink and suddenly Kitty, Aiki and Lulubell faced a bunch of women and men, their faces hidden under a small hood.

"The grand generals," Lulubell muttered mostly to herself, amazed.

"Lulubell Noah, Kitty Petro, Aiki Tenno, you are our newest exorcists. It is our wish that you will do your upmost best to help us win this war. May god be with you."

The girls nodded, Kitty suddenly turning as she noticed a bright light. When she saw what was behind her she yelped.

Lulubell and Aiki turned fast, neither having time to do anything as a huge white… thing lifted them all up, placing a silvery tentacle to each of their innocence.

"Innocence" she said smiling, turning to Kitty. "Innocence synchronization at 3%… 9%… 16%…32% …47%… 65 percent. I feel that you will go far, young exorcist, and you will be instrumental at helping our chances in the war."

She let Kitty down, turning to Aiki. "Innocence synchronization at 5%… 12%… 19%… 26%… 39%… 55%… 64 percent. You too will be of upmost importance in the war I feel; your actions will help save many lives, not just those of your fellow exorcists, but of many civilians as well."

Aiki was let down and Lulubell grunted as she felt a small tentacle land to a stop at her forehead on her innocence. "Innocence synchronization at 4%… 10%… 21%… 37%… 46%… 59%… 70 percent. I feel for you, that your help in the war will be most important. Your view on how the enemy works will enable you to take decisions others would rather not do. You will try to act as a diplomat and will help prevent a lot of grief."

Lulubell was let down and she almost collapsed. Kitty and Aiki helped her stand, all of them goggling at the ting in front of them… at least until they heard Komui applaud next to them.

"Congratulations, Hevlaska's predictions are usually right, so I would take her words into wisdom."

Lulubell groaned and tried to get to Komui. "When I get my hands around your scrawny neck…"

"I am sorry if I startled you." Kitty, Aiki and Lulubell turned to face Hevlaska.

"I am Hevlaska, the original exorcist. All spare innocence is kept inside me until a host is found. I hope you will bring me more from your missions."

"What was that you said about innocence synchronization?" Aiki asked.

"It is how synchronized you and your innocence is to each other" Hevlaska said. "The bigger the synchronization, the more powerful the user and innocence is. All general's innocence is over 100 percent. Now, I must rest. I hope to see you all again soon."

Once out of the creepy room where Hevlaska was resting Komui smiled to the girls.

"Well then, I have assigned you rooms; feel free to do whatever you feel like doing, although I strongly recommend that you get some sleep."

Komui showed the girls which rooms was whose and walked off.

Lulubell stretched. "Well guys I'll say good night, see you tomorrow."

"Yeah, see you tomorrow Lulubell" Kitty said going inside her own room.

Aiki muttering something about meeting Lavi.

Lulubell shaked her head and walked inside her room. It was small and spacious, but she had expected as much. She started to unbutton her jacket, when her eyes fell to her bed, and what laid on it. A red, black and white uniform stared back at her, the silver steel cross shining back at her. She swallowed and took a deep breath. Suddenly she wasn't tired anymore.

"Right then" she said slipping off her jacket, taking up her new one. "Let's see how I look in red.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Ignoring Lusts shrieks of doom Lulubell quickly got out of her bluish black suit.

She got out her new pants first, in all white except for one red stripe on each leg going from hip to hem on the outside of her leg. She had gotten a white undershirt which was probably not going to show under her jacket but she really didn't care. She took on her new gloves, fingerless and white.

She sighed and took up her new jacket. It was black, mostly, with a red stripe that went down the middle of her jacket and around her neck. The jacket was long, and ended in a long split in the front, the jacket's end almost over her hips.

The arms had 2 red stripes at the ends, as well as 3 red buttons below them mostly for show. 5 red buttons closet the jacket, a bit on the right side rather than down the middle.

A red belt was fastened around her midriff, doing wonders for her already pretty good hourglass figure. A pair of fake epaulettes in red whit additional 3 red buttons, made her shoulders stand out more. Also, over the right epaulette hung a yellow chain, to be fastened on yet another red button on the left part of the jacket.

And next to that particular button, the silver cross shone from its place, right above her heart.

She sat down, getting into her new shoes, black with red lacing. Looking into her mirror she had to admit, she looked good… probably would have looked better if it hadn't been for the angry scowl on lusts face.

"I don't want to hear it lust" Lulubell said angrily, suddenly looking at her bed.

A single item was still there, a long piece of red cloth. It wasn't a belt it was too short for that. She was stomped. Frustrated she drew a hand through her hair… and suddenly realized what the string was for.

She undid her ponytail, taking a look at her blue hair band with her bell. She sniffed, fighting back tears. The fact that the black order actually made her a hair band to match the rest of her outfit after all the trouble she had made for them, it made her feel so welcomed, even though she didn't deserve it.

Taking her bell out of its usual blue band she drew it onto her new red one, tying it back in her hair. She turned to look into the mirror again, her eyes roaming over her reflection, eventually settling her gaze at her innocence, shining gently through her blond bangs.

She turned her attention to the door as someone knocked gently on it.

"Enter."

She sighed as Cloud came walking in, blinking as she saw her student.

"How are you doing?" She simply asked.

"Pretty good actually" Lulubell said. "Lust on the other hand isn't taking the changes as good as me."

"I can imagine" Cloud said smiling. "So you up for a walk?"

"Well I don't think I can fall asleep yet so why not" Lulubell said smiling.

She walked out of her room Cloud and herself talking about nothing and anything, Lulubell ignoring the looks she got as she walked past other people.

Suddenly she looked up as she heard familiar voices.

"Ah yes, Kitty and Aiki couldn't sleep either" Cloud said smiling.

Lulubell shaked her head and walked up to Kitty and Aiki.

"Now then are you two planning to have a party without me?"

She smiled as Kitty and Aiki turned looking at their new uniforms. Kitty's had an outfit that looked very much like an oriental style dress. It was black, and went down to her legs, with splits on each side of her legs. The rest of the outfit kind of reminded her of her own, with the epaulettes, stripes and buttons in red, the yellow chain and silver cross. Under her black outfit she wore a pair of wide white pants, as well as a pair of black comfortable shoes.

Around her right shoulder, tied under her left arm, was a white piece of cloth, and at her left hip, fastened to that white cloth, hang her innocence mask.

"Not bad Petro, you shape up good."

"Thanks, you too," Kitty said, adjusting her red bandana.

Lulubell looked over to Aiki. She too wore a white pair of pants and a black pair of shoes, and unless she saw wrong, she also wore a black shirt under her main clothes. Her top clothes were basically a long cloak, which flowed out on the sides down at her ankles.

She too had the familiar epaulettes, buttons, stripes, chain and cross on her outfit. Around her waist a thin belt was tied in a cross, tied in the back, and in a small pocket attached to the belt her fans where sticking out.

"Not bad Tenno, you look good in black."

"Thanks Lulubell… I thought you were going to sleep."

"No chance of sleep with lust screaming in one's ear" Lulubell said, Kitty laughing.

"Hey wanna spar a little? I want to see how I can move in these clothes."

"Of course Kitty, it would be my pleasure," Lulubell said smiling.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Finding their way to the training room that Lavi had showed them Lulubell and Kitty got ready to spar.

Aiki went to the middle of the room, looking at both her friends, as well as the people who had gathered to watch.

"All right ladies here are the rules, this is a friendly spar. No aiming for places you know will be hard to heal. The first one who yields loses."

Kitty and Lulubell nodded Kitty taking up her mask, Lulubell getting ready.

"Innocence, activate."

People gasped, Aiki smiling as Kitty and Lulubell did their thing, kicking and punching, scratching and sending out sonar waves. Suddenly Lulubell got lucky and landed a hit on Kitty's face sending the girl flying.

Crashing with the wall Kitty groaned as she rose a little shakily.

"I yield" she said holding up a hand. "Ouch" she muttered falling over, Lulubell fast enough to catch her.

"You ok Kitty?"

"Yeah" Kitty said. "But unless you have an identical twin I think I should sit down."

Lulubell smiled and let Kitty sit down turning to the viewers.

"Any chance of getting some water?"

Bookman quickly came down with a towel for Kitty who started to look better already.

"I'm fine" Kitty said gently. "Just a little dizzy."

"It's no surprise" Bookman said gently making sure just in case.

"Next time you two spar, be a little more careful."

"Yeah we will, I promise" Lulubell said gently.

Bookman nodded smiling gently. "Now then it's getting late, you three should head for bed."

"Yes sir" Lulubell said, turning to Kitty.

"Need some help there?" Kitty smiled and yawned.

"That would be nice."

Lulubell shaked her head and bent down to lift Kitty up into her arms bridal style. "Good night Aiki, Bookman… everyone" she said gently walking towards the rooms, ignoring the mass of people who stared at her with fear as she passed them.

Kitty sighed. "Wow, what's with the cold atmosphere?"

"Well I used to be a bad guy remember?" Lulubell said gently.

"Yeah" Kitty said smiling. "But you are good now, what does the past mean?"

"A lot when I have hurt and even killed many of these people's friends" Lulubell said. "But it's ok. Trust comes with time I guess, I just need to do enough to make amends to the order."

Kitty smiled gently. "Well whatever you have done you'll always have me, Aiki and Sensei."

"If you think you are helping you're not" Lulubell said grumpily, Kitty laughing.

"Well here is my room, thanks for the lift Lulubell."

"No problem" Lulubell said gently. "Good night Kitty, I'll see you tomorrow."

Kitty smiled as Lulubell let her stand on her own, walking over to her room, bowing gently to Lulubell as she entered her room.

Lulubell sighed gently as she turned to head into her own room. She stopped as she stood face to face with an exorcist.

She lifted an eyebrow at the yellow edges of the man's uniform, as well as his grey hair.

"General Froi Tiedol I presume" Lulubell said gently, bowing to show her respect. "What can I help you with?"

Froi smiled gently. "No need to look so defensive my dear, we are not enemies anymore."

Lulubell relaxed her muscles at this, glad she didn't have to explain herself yet again.

"I am just a mere messenger" Froi continued. "I hate to be the one who says this, but you are wanted at a meeting in the morning to discuss… some things."

"Information on my family and the earls plans I suppose" Lulubell said raising an eyebrow gently as Froi looked uncomfortable.

"Its ok, I guess it was inevitable" Lulubell said gently.

"I'm sorry" Froi said.

Lulubell sighed. "Yeah well… they are out to kill me now… it's me or them. Besides, In spite of everything I have some friends here too."

"Good to hear" Froi said gently. "Well I will see you in the morning, sleep tight Miss Noah, and welcome to the black order."

And with that Froi walked off, Lulubell bowing gently.

She stretched and walked into her room, ignoring Lusts screams of anger once again as she headed to bed.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Lulubell woke up the next day briefly wondering where she was before she remembered that she was at the order. She sighed and rose looking into the mirror.

"You look like hell" Lust said simply.

Lulubell scowled at Lust in the mirror.

"It's early and someone screamed in my ear all night."

Lust huffed.

"Lust for the love of god I'm an exorcist now and that you just have to accept."

"And if I don't?"

Lulubell didn't answer.

"I thought as much" Lust said grinning evilly. "Now why don't you go and meet with the filth of the filth, and tell them all that they are doomed."

Lulubell shaked her head and got into her new red and black exorcist uniform and walked out in the hallway. She stopped up as she noticed sword pointing at her face.

She sighed. "Isn't it a little early for death matches Kanda?"

Kanda scowled. "I heard the rumors… but I never believed that the order would sink so deep as to take in Noah's."

Lulubell bit back a retort about Allen Walker; she needed him on her side to survive this place.

"Be that as it may Kanda I'm on the orders side, whether I want to or not."

Lulubell dragged away her bangs showing off her green stigmata.

"This should be proof enough that I won't try anything, so please lower your katana."

Kanda still scowled but placed his katana in its sheath.

"The generals are waiting for you" he said and walked off indicating to Lulubell that she should follow him.

Lulubell sighed again and walked down after Kanda who led her to a room. Lulubell walked inside and noticed the 3 generals, Komui and Reever, and a bunch of official looking guys that she decided had to be the top chiefs of the order.

"Morning Lulubell, slept well?"

Cloud Nyne smiled at Lulubell who bowed gently back.

"Well I've slept" Lulubell said gently, noticing a huge mirror on the far side of the room and noticed Lusts grimace in the reflection. She smiled as she formed a plan and walked up to sit right in front of the mirror facing the door.

"Right" Lulubell said smiling towards everyone. "You might want to listen because I won't say this 2 times."

Everyone turned to Lulubell showing that she had their full attention.

Lulubell smiled. "I will not say anything about the earl, my family or the earls plans, before Allen Walker, Aristar Krory, Miranda Lotto, Lenalee Lee, Kanda Yuu and Lavi Bookman are sitting here with us in this room." She smiled gently, propped her feet on the table and leant back. "Someone should go and get them so we can start" she said, her grin nearly feline.

One of the chiefs glared at her. "Who do you think you are to make demands Noah?"

"One with valuable information" Lulubell said, her face a neutral one.

Reever smiled and rose. "I'll get them, be back in a little while."

Lulubell smiled as Reever left looking at the people around her. She noticed that everyone was staring at her either in hate/contempt or in sympathy.

"What's up with the look?" Lulubell asked. "Is my hair standing on its own?"

She turned to look in the mirror in mock panic. Just as she did the door opened again and Reever entered together with Walker and co… only they weren't alone. Lulubell grinned as she saw Allen looking at the mirror… not at her, but on Lust, and saw the shadow right behind his shoulder. She glanced quickly on Lust and saw her livid face.

"Good of you to join us ladies and gentlemen" Lulubell said turning around to face the newly arrived company as Lust started screaming.

"DAMN BLODDY TRAITOR I WILL KILL YOU MYSELF HOW DARE YOU SHOW YOU FACE YOU LITTLE…"

Lulubell turned Lust out gently and motioned for everyone to sit down. They did, although Allen's eyes never left Lusts face for a minute.

"Now then, before we begin I will start apologizing for trying to kill you all in the past. I am truly sorry and will try my best to make up for it."

"HIS BROTHER HOW DARE YOU EVEN TO THINK…"

"Also you have to excuse me if I talk a little loud; I have a little hearing problem."

Allen finally looked at her and not on Lust mimicking 'a little?'

"You are all here because I am going to tell you about the Noah's, and the earl… and also how you can get higher possibilities for winning the war. I will start talking; please don't stop me to ask questions, I promise I will answer any questions you have after I have finished talking. Any questions before I start?"

Lulubell looked around, holding her gaze on Allen who looked back to Lust's reflection.

"…AMN TRAITOR I'LL SLIT YOUR THROATH IN YOUR SLEEP YOU CIRCUS CLOWN WANNABE."

"Right then" Lulubell said smiling. "I'll start with the Noah family history."

Lulubell started talking, telling everyone what she had told Cloud Nyne all those weeks ago aboard the African ship. She sighed and finished quickly trying her best to ignore Lust, who had finished ranting about the 14th and started on her telling the exorcists everything.

"The Noah of lust is still whit inn me. I see her over my shoulder each time I look at my reflection. And she does not like this new set of circumstances. In fact she has been screaming in my ear constantly since I became an exorcist… and I worry that one day she will try to take over again. However that brings me to the next part of my little speech… how to kill Noah's."

Lust's scream died for the first time in 4 hours and Lulubell sighed.

"There are 14 Noah's, all with different abilities and tempers. Kanda over there killed Skin Bolic, the Noah of Wrath a good while back… the problem is this… wrath will be back."

"DON'T YOU DARE CONTINUE DOWN THIS PATH LULUBELL."

Lust had found her voice again.

"When a Noah host dies the Noah feeling will be reincarnated in another person… to kill a Noah you need to remove it from its host's body and then destroy it."

"How the hell do we do that?" Lavi asked, bewildered.

"Until a few months back, none of the Noah's believed that it was possible at all "Lulubell said and then turned to Allen.

"I MEAN IT LULUBELL I WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS."

"And then Walker here slashed Tyki Mikk with his sword. I assume you remember the black creature that attacked you?"

Allen and Lavi nodded remembering the black creature that hadn't talked. Just grinned a huge grin of pleasure as it attacked.

"That's what you are up against" Lulubell said matter of factly. "And that's also how you can win this war… for good."

"THE HELL THEY WILL, THE EARL WILL KILL THEM ALL AND YOU TOO."

"How? Even if we take out all the Noah's there's still the Millennium Earl" Miranda said.

Lulubell smiled and looked at Miranda. "The Earl is a Noah too. The most powerful one."

"You mean?" The generals who had silently been listening sat up.

Lulubell smiled, once again ignoring Lust.

"Yes. Have Allen slash him, make his Noah form appear… and kill it. That way the Earl will never rise again. It won't be easy… but it's not impossible to do if the exorcists train themselves to be as strong as they can possible get."

"DAMN IT LULUBELL WHY DO YOU DO THIS? YOU ARE BETRAYING YOUR OWN FAMILY, STOP IT."

"Now I am finished, are there any questions?"

No one said anything, but Cloud Nyne raised her hand.

"Yes?"

"This way to kill the Noah's… Do you intend to kill Lust too?"

Lulubell looked over her shoulder looking at Lust who looked halfway scared and halfway angry.

"If push comes to show, and she gets too much to handle… then yes."

Lust looked at her shocked. "How dare you? I gave you a life. I gave you a family, how dare you even think about destroying me you little ungrateful…"

"I have warned lust so many times that we are on your side, yet she does nothing but complain and scream about family. Yet, I know her so good that I'm almost convinced that if she sees an opportunity to get me killed and to be reincarnated she will take it."

Lulubell noticed that Lust had stopped screaming. A sign that she was right.

"Therefore, if this attempt does happen and I live, I want you to tie me down and to kill her."

Lulubell looked at Allen. "Do I have your word that you will do this?"

Allen looked at her, and then at the mirror, then back to Lulubell.

"Of course."

"Good" Lulubell said rising. "Then I am finished here, unless there is something else you are wondering about?"

No one said anything; even Lust had lost her voice.

"Well then, if you need me I'll be at the mess hall eating."

Lulubell stretched herself and exited the room heading towards the mess hall.

"Hey lust, earlier today you asked what would happen if you didn't accept the fact that I'm a good guy… you have your answer now."

"…Yeah… I have."

Lulubell smiled as she stood in front of Jerry again.

"Morning Jerry, give me 10 gallons of milk, 5 chicken legs and a bowl of ice cream would you?"


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Lulubell had been sitting and eating for almost 5 minutes before she got company.

"We need to talk."

"Well good morning to you too Walker" Lulubell said, not looking up from her food. "What took you so long? I halfway expected you to kidnap me before I even got out of that meeting room."

"Komui wanted to talk with me" Allen said. "Now, we need to talk."

"Can I at least finish eating?" Lulubell asked. "I'd rather not talk about dead relatives on an empty stomach."

Allen sighed but sat down as Lulubell continued eating.

"So… how's your hearing going?" Allen asked.

Lulubell smiled gently. "Gotten it back somehow, it has been remarkably quiet for almost 10 minutes, I'm almost in shock."

"**Oh shut your yap"** Lust grumped, still pretty mad and somewhat scared at Lulubell's threat.

Allen sighed. "I always got pretty mad over the fact that my shadow would never talk to me… he just stands there in my reflection smiling, as if he knows something that he doesn't want to share."

Lulubell didn't say anything but laid down her fork as she finished eating. "We shouldn't be talking about this here. If you finally have gotten all the higher ups off your back it would be bad to talk about the 14th in a place where everyone can hear."

Allen nodded. "I know where we can go."

Allen and Lulubell walked for a while until Allen led Lulubell to a place that made her blink.

"The ark? You are taking me inside the ark?"

Allen smiled. "I know of a secret room in here that no one has access to except me, you will be the first one I take in there."

"Well I'm honored, really, but wont the scientists that's… you know, guarding it ask why you and a former Noah are going inside the ark when you haven't been put on a mission?"

Allen smiled and pointed to the side were Reever, Johnny and some other science department guys were sitting at their places, sleeping in a pile of paperwork.

"They won't mind" Allen said smiling.

Lulubell shaked her head. "You'd of thought that security would be a bit tighter, it's not as if the earl hasn't invaded the order once before."

Allen didn't say anything, just walked through the huge white door and inside.

Inside, Lulubell noticed that many of the doors had notes on them, but couldn't read them fast enough to see what they said.

"What are the notes for?"

"Locations" Allen said. "Different doors go to different places, this is our way of remembering what door goes where."

Lulubell nodded, understanding, stopping as Allen walked up to a door and opened it.

"After you" he said smiling.

Lulubell walked through the door, looking around in the room. It was big and white, with a long mirror that stretched down the entire back wall. A white Piano stood in the room, with a small piano chair.

"Nice room Walker, I'm impressed."

Allen turned to the mirror, to his silent shadow with the big smile.

"It was here I meet him first. He taught me a song, and suddenly I could control the ark… ever since he has been looking over my shoulder."

Lulubell nodded and walked up to the wall to look at the 14th.

"Lulubell… am I a Noah?"

"**Not likely**."

Lulubell scowled at Lust who had answered.

"But… I have a Noah shadow."

"Do you have stigmata?"

"… no."

"Do your skin turn grey, or your eyes turn golden?"

"No, but…"

"Do you hear a small voice in your head telling you to destroy and to kill without remorse?"

"No."

"Then you are not a Noah."

Lulubell smiled and sat down, indicating to Allen to do the same.

"I'll tell you everything you need to know. Sit down Walker, this could take some time."

Allen sat down and looked at Lulubell who sighed.

"First of all, you need to know that even though the 14th tried to kill the earl, he was not a good person."

Allen frowned, a bit confused. "The 14th and the earl are brothers through human blood. Through the years the 14th kept for himself in his brother's shadow, not talking much to anyone, keeping to himself and his music… then suddenly one day he snapped… he decided that he wanted some respect… and he attacked."

"But why?" Allen asked. "What drove him to attack his own brother?"

"He wanted to become the millennium earl himself" Lulubell said simply.

"**As if he could ever…" **

"Lust shut it nobody cares."

"**Humph." **

"One of the reasons the 14th were so strong was that he kept to himself, so no one really knew what his power were. After the attack that left the earl close death the 14th ran for his life, taking many Noah's down as they chased after him in rage for their master."

"As he did, he had probably formed a plan. He knew that eventually he would die, that his brother would heal and would come after him… so he went to the man who could help him… or rather the men who could help him. His uncle Mana Walker and his best friend Marian Cross."

Allen looked up, in shock. "So Mana was an N…"

"**No he weren't. The circus clown were human blood related, nothing else." **

Lulubell scowled at Lust who shut up again.

"As I said the Noah is reincarnated as the human host dies. There is also one more way for a Noah to leave the human host, to another host nearby. It hurts like hell and has to be a mutual agreement between human host and Noah memory and it is apparently a hell of a strain on both human and memory."

"Now we have no proff of what happened next I think it is a good gamble on what happened next. The 14th found Mana, who had taken in you, and transferred his Noah memory to you, knowing that it would be ages before anyone understood what had happened."

"He made Cross and Mana promise to take care of you and the remaints of his Noah memory and ran away only to later be killed by the earl."

Allen nodded. "Sounds probable."

Lulubell smiled gently. "Now if you remember my story of Noah history the Noah you see over your shoulder is not yet awake. You have learned of his musical powers and can control the ark, which is why he has manifested, but his brain is still fast asleep. Therefore you aren't a Noah… however he will wake up, probably soon since you use his powers… if I were you, I'd get rid of him as soon as possible before he endangers you and your friends."

Lulubell yawned and rose.

"Is there anything you feel like knowing?"

Allen sighed and looked at his shadow. "No… not really."

Lulubell smiled turning towards the door.

Allen however walked up to the piano in the room.

"What's wrong?"

"I can't explain it" Allen said sitting down gently. "But it's like something wants' me to play… to ease a pain."

Lulubell looked towards the shadow behind Allen. "Well then you should play."

"You sure?"

"It's nothing wrong with playing music Walker, please start playing."

Allen nodded and started playing. Lulubell and Lust both got wide eyed as they recognized the tune.

Lulubell smiled gently. "Damn you Neah, this is the song you decided to use?"

Lulubell sighed and started singing to the tune, Allen looking at her in shock, but not stopping the tune

Soshite bouya wa nemuri ni tsuite

Ikizuku hai no naka no honoo

Hitotsu, futatsu to

Ukabu fukurami itoshii yokogao

Daichi ni taruru ikusen no

Yume, yume

Gin no hitomi no yuragu yoru ni

Umareochita kagayaku omae

Ikuoku no toshitsuki ga

Ikutsu inori o tsuchi e kaeshite mo

Watashi wa inori tsuzukeru

Douka kono ko ni ai o

Tsunaida te ni KISU o

Allen smiled as he continued his song. Lulubell had a pretty good voice. Then suddenly he heard another voice singing. It sounded like Lulubell… but with an echo.

He looked up at Lulubell, and noticed that she was smiling, looking towards the mirror behind them. Allen goggled and dared a look over his shoulder, seeing Lust in deep song

Soshite bouya wa nemuri ni tsuite

Ikizuku hai no naka no honoo

Hitotsu, futatsu to

Ukabu fukurami itoshii yokogao

Daichi ni taruru ikusen no

Yume, yume

Gin no hitomi no yuragu yoru ni

Umareochita kagayaku omae

Ikuoku no toshitsuki ga

Ikutsu inori o tsuchi e kaeshite mo

Watashi wa inori tsuzukeru

Douka kono ko ni ai o

Tsunaida te ni KISU o

Allen finished up and looked towards Lust, who for the first time since he had seen her looked… more peaceful. Allen dared a glance towards Lulubell who sighed.

"Back then… Lust and I were the closest to the 14th… next to the earl ofcourse."

"He taught us to sing and showed us his world… one day he came to me and said that he had composed a new song… and that he had decided to dedicate it to me. I was the only one of the Noah's who had heard it, it was very special."

Lulubell smiled and headed for the door.

"It's getting late, we should head back before anyone panics over the fact that we're missing."

And with that, Lulubell walked out of the door, Allen following quickly.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Once out of the arc, Allen thanked Lulubell for the talk and headed to his own devices. Lulubell sighed as she started to walk aimlessly around the order, ignoring Lust who mumbled foul words under her breath. After a while Lulubell sighed.

"For the love of god lust what do you want?"

"**Allen Walker's head on a stick."**

"… Other than the mutilation of my new friends?"

"… **Sex. It's been too long since last time, and in case you have forgotten my name is lust."**

"Oh sure cause anyone here would want to sleep with a woman who up until recently tried to kill them all, and why in the name of god am I even discussing this with you?"

"**Cause you are needy too, don't try to deny it I can sense it."**

"Lust, the answer is no."

"**What if I told you of a person I know is willing?"**

"… Who would that be?"

"**As if you haven't felt her eyes roaming your body ever since she first laid her eyes on you."**

"You aren't really talking about… wow you must really be desperate if you are considering…"

"**Yeah, yeah let's cut to the chase here, you give me a little control of your mind and let me work my magic and have a long and satisfying night… and I'll be quiet for a week."**

"…Promise?"

"**I swear on the millennium earl."**

Fine, but I will blame this all on you if this blows up in my face later on.

DGMDGMDGM

Kitty stretched as she stood in the training room. She was trying to master the tiger form of her innocence. So far she was having a few difficulties.

"Busy at work then?"

Kitty smiled and turned gently to see Lulubell. "Yeah, I'm having balance issues."

Lulubell smiled. "Probably the tail screwing it up for you, but you'll get used to it after a while, fighting in a different form takes some hard training to get used to."

Kitty smiled gently, not really looking at Lulubell but concentrating on her stretches. "Hey Lulubell there is something I was wondering about."

"Yes?"

"Well I took the liberty of reading up on the information on the Noah family that the order had available and I was somewhat confused with how the powers act up to the different Noah's."

Lulubell raised an eyebrow gently. "Really? How so?"

"Well there was this one guy named Wrath that apparently have died, he had this psycho strength and barrier ability, and that I get since he was a Noah of wrath all he had to do was to go berserk."

"Well there was more to him than that, but I get your point."

"But then there are abilities like Lusts… I mean how does the name of lust fit together with transforming into other people or creatures?"

"That's actually very simple" Lulubell said grinning gently. "Say that you are being sent out on a stakeout mission with big orders of not getting spotted. So you are out there in the middle of nowhere when you really get the urge to… go into heat."

Kitty blushed scarlet but Lulubell ignored it.

"So you look around and deduce that there are no humans to fool around with but see that a pack of sheep is grazing on a nearby hill."

Lulubell stopped talking grinning as Kitty clasped her hands over her ears, her face getting more and more scarlet.

"THANK YOU ENOUGH INFORMATION, FORGET I ASKED."

Lulubell giggled. "You have no idea what you are missing out of; did you know that a pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes?"

Kitty rose up and turned to Lulubell apparently ready to tell her just what she thought of her standards but stopped up.

Lulubell frowned gently as Kitty jumped back into a defensive stand holding up her hands ready to strike.

"Anything the matter?"

"Yeah" Kitty said scowling. "Your eyes are golden."

A quick glance at a nearby mirror made Lulubell huff gently.

"Damn, and here I thought we could avoid the tense moment."

She smiled gently. "All right, let us start from the top shall we? The name is Lust, although you already knew that. I would like to point out that you have been standing with your eyes to the ground with me in the room for almost 5 minutes, if I wanted you dead you would have been by now. I am not in control over Lulubell, Lulubell has let me get free reigns, and the moment she senses danger to her new friends or her new allies she will take over quicker than a snap of her new sensei's whip."

Kitty relaxed and removed her innocence clasping it to her belt.

"All right I'll bite, why have Lulubell allowed you to wander around?"

"Simple, in return for a favor from her I will keep my mouth closed for a week."

"What kind of favor?" Kitty asked suspiciously.

"Well, remember that discussion we had a minute ago?"

Kitty blushed scarlet again. "I see that you do. Well here is the thing, I am really needy, and apparently Lulubell have standards now and refuse to use my powers and turn into a rat and run into a hole for a while, so we agreed on a person from the order."

Kitty's blush turned into a rather ugly shade of tomato and started stuttering.

"So here is the thing, ever since she met you and you met her, you have secretly tried to find excuses to be close by. The reading classes, the sunbathing, my personal favorite was the 'accidental' fall on the training session where you groped her breast."

Kitty hid her face in her hands trying vainly to come with a retort.

"So here is how I see it" Lust finished sharply. "You like Lulubell, I am in dire needs of getting laid, and Lulubell is in dire need of some rest as well as some… relax time. If you find out you want to be a part of this, come to Lulubell's room tonight, if not, I will find someone else, I don't really care who."

"If you don't care who then why come to me first?" Kitty asked, finally finding her voice.

Lust smiled gently. "Because she cares for you too, although don't read too much into that, she felt the same thing for an akuma a few years back."

And with that Lust turned and left, not minding giving up the control as Lulubell took over rubbing her eyes gently.

"You could have been gentler."

"**I want a lay, not a girlfriend; you want to show her she's special invite her out on your own time." **

Lulubell groaned as she finally got to her room entered and laid down to rest. Something told her that it was going to be a long night.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Lulubell had been resting for about 3 hours before there was a knock on her door. Gently she rose, smiling slightly as she opened the door, seeing Kitty.

She had left her jacket, headband and mask; apparently back at her own room, looking at Lulubell fiercely, although the tint in her cheeks told Lulubell that she was really nervous about this whole thing.

"I have a few conditions" Kitty said gently.

Lulubell smiled and opened her door wider, silently inviting Kitty inside.

Kitty walked in briskly as if to tell herself to not change her mind and run for the hills. "All right Kitty I am listening" Lulubell said gently.

"I don't want to do this with her" Kitty said gently. "I want to do it with you."

Lulubell raised an eyebrow gently. "Any reason why?"

"Yeah, I got a crush on Lulubell Noah, not the Noah of Lust."

Lulubell looked in the mirror and saw Lust shrugging, indicating that she didn't care.

"All right, anything else?"

"Well… um… it's not as much a request as it is a favor… I uhhh, haven't really done this sort of thing before."

Lulubell strained her ears to listen, as Kitty got redder and redder in the face, her voice turning into a whisper, her head sinking lower and lower to her chest.

Inside her head Lust was chuckling, clearly happy. "Oh joy, we have a virgin, this night is getting better and better."

"Just please promise me to be gentle with me."

Lulubell sighed, gently walking up to Kitty and placed a hand under her cheek forcing Kitty to look up. "You talk as if you believed I was going to hurt you. I thought we knew each other well enough by now Kitty."

"I trust you" Kitty said gently, her voice still a bit shaky. "But I don't trust Lust."

"A wise decision" Lulubell said smiling. "I don't trust her either, except when it comes to her sexual nature. She and I both know what we are doing, and I promise you Kitty that in the morning you will not regret a thing."

And with that said, Lulubell smiled and gently kissed Kitty, letting Kitty taste a small bit of what was to come. Ending it and letting Kitty get some air Lulubell smiled gently, Lust chuckling in the back of her head. This was going to be a fun night.

DGMDGMDGM

Cloud Nyne was worried. It was no wonder why, according to Aiki, she had heard Kitty leaving from her room late last night but hadn't heard her coming back. Turning a corner she suddenly stood in front of Lulubell's room. Maybe she would know something.

Noticing that the door was locked, Cloud Nyne fished up a universal key that worked with any door in HQ. One of the few perks of being a general was full access of all rooms. Stepping inside the room Cloud Nyne closed the door and looked towards the bed in the room. Her worry disappeared in an instant and was replaced with shock and a hint of anger.

Stepping up to the bed she saw Kitty and Lulubell, Lulubell gently holding her arm over Kitty's, the two of them sleeping under Lulubell's sheets, both without a hint of clothing.

Gently Lulubell stirred and opened her eyes, looking up to see her sensei's eyes trying to bore a hole through her skull, her arms crossed. Sighing she gently kissed Kitty behind her ear, the young blonde groaning gently.

"Urgh ten more minutes she mumbled," making Lulubell smile.

"Hey Kitty about yesterday, I didn't force you to do this right?"

"Of course not, I came because I wanted too."

"And you don't regret doing this?"

"Not even the slightest" Kitty sighed smiling gently.

"Can you explain that to our sensei who is trying to see if it's possible to kill with a look?"

"Huh?" Kitty opened her eyes and saw Cloud Nyne. "Ohhh… hi sensei, how are you doing this lovely day?"

Cloud Nyne huffed. "I would suggest that you get dressed, fresh up and get something to eat."

Cloud Nyne sighed as Kitty giggled.

"Not that kind of food Petro. Get up now. And when you are ready Komui would like to speak with you Lulubell, time to do some work."

And with that Cloud Nyne turned on her heel and walked out, leaving the other two women giggling.

"Well she handled that better than I thought she would" Lulubell said rising from the bed.

"Yeah, but we should probably do as she says before she decides to come back and lash at us with her whip" Kitty grumbled, looking around the floor to find her clothes.

A good while later Lulubell walked into Komui's room, finished dressing, cleaning and eating (the later taking the longest time). Komui smiled at her and held out a hand to indicate that she could sit down.

"Morning Lulubell, had a good night sleep?"

Lulubell smiled. "Well a good night at least" she said, smiling gently. "So what did you need me for?"

"A mission" Komui said handing her a file.

Lulubell blinked and looked through the pages. "Mind speeding it up a little for me, I'm not that good of a reader and this is a lot of big words."

"All right" Komui said, stopping up as the door opened and Allen came in.

"Sorry I'm late Komui san… oh hi Lulubell, had a good night?"

"Yes I had, now sit down Walker, I am anxious to start this thing."

Komui smiled. "All right, the mission isn't too hard, at least not more than usual… as far as we know at least."

"Not helping" Lulubell said.

"Right, my bad. Basically there is an old ruin in America, in the state of Utah. For many nights the locals have heard what sounds like a pack of wolves howling… in tune… to the melody of the ride of the valkyrie."

"Neat" Lulubell said grinning gently. "Musical animals in the abandoned ruins near the Gran canyon, that's quite a mission, won't be easy to track them down."

"The finders have found a cave that is most likely the home of the wolves… however, the akuma and the Noah's are also on the move. We need you to be quick."

"Got it, we are taking the ark then?" Lulubell asked.

"Yes."

"All right then, let's move shall we?"

Allen and Lulubell rose and walked out, Allen looking back to Komui with a small gentle smile, Komui blinking back knowingly, sighing as the door closed.

"Good luck Lulubell, this will be a rough journey."


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Walking through the ark, Lulubell looked around gently, remembering a time when this was Noah's property.

"You ok Lulubell?"

Lulubell looked over to Allen, seeing him gently opening a door that was probably leading to Utah.

"Yeah, just thinking back to the 'good old times'."

Allen frowned gently. "You miss your family?"

Lulubell sighed. "It's complicated… and I don't think we have the time for this, do we?"

"No" Allen agreed, sighing gently as Lulubell passed him through the doorway.

"After this is over, I'll tell you everything" Lulubell said, feeling Lust in the back of her head cringing of being friendly with Allen, but keeping her word and kept silent.

Walking out of the door, the two exorcists found themselves in what looked to be an old ruin.

"Nice place" Lulubell said sarcastically, looking around the corners. Allen looked around too, not saying anything.

"Do you sense any Akuma?"

"No… at least not yet, but that doesn't mean that they aren't there."

"True… now let's move."

The two ran off, Allen leading the way. Suddenly he stopped, Lulubell halting beside him.

"Anything wrong?"

"Do you hear that?" Lulubell listened hard, and heard light footsteps coming towards them.

"Best to be safe" she muttered, activating her innocence, sensing Allen activating his at her side.

In front of her she saw a shadow of a figure walking closer and closer. A chill ran up her spine as the figure laughed gently and started talking.

"Konbawa my dear exorcists, how nice to see you arrive for your funeral."

The figure walked into the light, huge, a long top hat perched on his grey head, with long ears and big grin plastered, laughing gently.

The millennium earl.

Lulubell didn't even know what hit her, she felt a huge pain in the back of her head as she fell to her knees. Her mouth opened and she started talking, but it weren't her words.

"**My lord… kill her… let me reunite with you, I will not be a slave for this weak human anymore**."

Lulubell grunted. "Lust, darn you god damn traitor."

"**I AM NOT THE TRAITOR HERE LULUBELL.**"

Lulubell clutched her head, she couldn't move, Lust was holding her back, fighting with all her might.

"Walker… RUN… leave me behind and get out from here."

"And leave a fellow exorcist? I don't think so."

"Don't be such an arse Allen, get going ARRGHH."

Pain… it hurt so badly. Lulubell gently looked up to see the earl walk slowly towards her, dragging out his sword from nowhere.

"**YES… I AWAIT YOUR PUNISHMENT MY LORD."**

Darn that lust. "Allen… urgh… tell Kitty and Aiki that I'm sorry… and tell sensei that I was the one who hid her whip on the ship to Barcelona."

"Tell them yourself" Allen said, walking in front of her, as if to protect her.

"Allen you aren't strong enough to take him on, ARGH."

Lust chuckled. "**You willing to die for her Walker? After all she has done to you and your friends?" **

"She didn't do it, you did lust, don't try to fool me."

"**True… but I wonder if she is as forgiving… as soon as she gives up the battle I will take over her head, and I will give my life to the earl, as soon as I have crushed you. After all… you did kill her special girl." **

"I don't hate him for it… Mimi was an Akuma, she is better off in heaven than here."

"**Then why struggle to live here when you can die and meet her there?"**

Lulubell didn't answer, she was too busy trying to stop the pain… the earl was getting closer.

"DAMN IT ALLEN RUN. GET THE INNOCENCE, I AM DONE FOR."

"No. I will not leave a friend behind."

Lulubell laughed gently. "Friends huh? A few months ago we tried to kill each other."

"No, you and lust tried to kill me. I don't kill humans, just Akuma."

"Never the less…" her eyes went foggy and dark, the pain was starting to take over. "Allen… urgh. Please run… please don't let him win… I am sorry that I can't keep my promise to tell you everything."

And with that final request, everything went black.


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Pain… damn it, everything hurt.

Voices… who were talking… everything felt like it came through a vacuum.

"ok the ba…"

"cked ou… ust bet…"

"ted me t…"

"Urgh…"

Lulubell opened her eyes, winching as a bright light hit her eyes.

"Lulubell… thank god you're ok."

Lulubell blinked, and realized that she was in a big room, strapped down to a chair by metal braces located at her feet, wrists and her stomach.

Looking around she saw Allen, Lavi, Lenalee, Kanda, Krory, Miranda, Kitty, Aiki, her sensei as well as a strange woman she did not recognize all gathered around her.

Just as she realized that she was still alive as well as her friends safe, pain filled her again.

"**NO. WHY ARE YOU ALL STILL ALIVE? WHY ISN'T THIS TRATIORUS BASTARD DEAD?"**

Allen smiled gently.

"I am sorry about that Lulubell; we didn't really trust your inner Noah to not betray us… so we sat up a trap."

Allen turned to the strange woman again nodding gently. "This is Fo; she is actually a security program here at the American dark order."

Lust's scowl turned into a look of shock and outrage as Fo quickly turned into the Millennium Earl, then just as quickly turned back

"**YOU LITTLE… HOW DARE YOU IMPERSONATE… I WILL KILL YOU."**

"Feel free to try" Fo said, her arms expanding into a pair of long daggers. "Just know that I will be trying to kill you too."

Allen's smile disappeared. "Right, let's just get this over with… Kitty if you'd please."

Kitty, who up until then had been strangely quiet, gently walked up to Lust, who grinned evilly.

"**Ah good day my precious… back for more?"**

Kitty didn't speak, but gently unbuttoned the top 2 buttons on Lulubell's jacket, dragging it away to show enough skin.

"That ok Allen?"

Lust looked over at Allen smiling. "**You intending to do naughty things with my body Walker? And here I thought you only did things like that with Road."**

Allen, who had slowly begun to walk up to Lulubell, stopped dead in his tracks. "What the hell is that supposed to mean? Road is the one always hanging on me, I haven't done anything to her."

"**True. It was she who had her fun in that town, not really you when I think about it."**

"What are you talking about?"

"**My dear stupid boy, you think Road hangs onto you because she thinks that you are cute?" **

"**Now I am going to be kind enough to leave you with a small thought pattern, the first time you met Road you were in a town that played the same day over and over again right? Now something tells me that when you did get out, you felt like it had been a few days more than originally thought." **

"**Let's add that up with these small facts. Road had you deadbolt locked to a wall, and as the Noah of dreams she can block certain parts of your memory that she does not want you to access… still with me?"**

Allen frowned. "Say what it is you want Lust, I am not in the mood for games."

"**All right, I will be quick. You on the floor, with some buttons on your shirt loose. Road grinning and clinging in front of you wearing your jacket, A terrified exorcist tied to a clock in the corner and a girl under hard memory erosion in a chair behind you. Add these up and you will get what?"**

Allen looked confused… then suddenly he looked like a light bulb had gone up in his head.

"Oh god."

**Lust laughed. "Ah thank god, I thought you would never get it."**

"You are lying. "

"**Am I? Is that why Road came to me only a few hours after your encounter to ask for pointers on what to do next time she found you unconscious and in her care? I got all the details Walker, she really had fun… over… and over… and over again"**

Allen looked sick to his stomach, Lavi and Lenalee looked shocked, Kitty, Aiki and Cloud Nyne looked terrified and worried, all the while Lust laughed.

Fo frowned. "I know that this might sound insensitive, but we have a task to do here right? You can freak out over being raped by a twelve year old girl later, after this is over"

Allen looked up, his sickness momentarily forgotten.

"You are right Fo. Everybody ready?"

In one fellow swoop, all innocence's were activated, and Allen gently drew out his sword from his left arm. A small part of him smiled as he saw Lust squirm as he approached, grimacing as he placed his blade gently over the exposed skin over her heart.

"Lulubell… if you can hear this I don't blame you for this… this will hurt a bit I am afraid, but the long term effect will be for your own good."

And with that Allen thrust his sword down and through Lulubell's heart, the woman strapped in the chair in front of him screaming her lungs out.

The body collapsed, and in one fluid motion, a black figure rose out from the wound, wearing blacker than night armor.

Over its heart, a white cross stood out from the rest of the darkness. The figure lifted its head and opened its glowering yellow eyes. Its mouth twisted into an evil grin.

"**Well now… this is the part where you all die."**

And with that said the figure lunged, and chaos erupted.


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Cloud Nyne wondered gently to herself how she landed herself in this mess.

She seemed to recall being forced into a thick African jungle with 3 spare innocence… and now look at her. Fighting a Noah that singlehandedly had held off her and the other generals trying to get the earls Akuma egg back to her master.

Now in the shadow form Lust was in she was a bit restricted. She had her human size form, and had no weapons to speak of… except her own body and abilities.

Lusts fingers extended into long sharp claws and her hair flowed out in every direction, as if they where octopus tentacles, ready to strike. Lust had been kicking, scraping and biting away at everyone since she got free, and everyone was starting to get tired.

Lust laughed. "**This all you got? The earl is going to eat you all for breakfast."**

Cloud Nyne looked around. Allen and Lavi had some small cuts and bruises on their faces, Lenalee looked like she had died standing.

Kitty and Aiki was handling things very well, although Kitty looked like the only thing that kept her standing was her innocence. Currently in lion form Kitty was held up by two clones, one checking her over, the other gazing warily at Lust. Lust turned towards Cloud Nyne, as well as Lau Shimin, growling lightly.

"**This is all your fault… you deserve to die slowly… but for that to happen I need to be able to concentrate."**

In one fluid moment Lust shoot out her hair like spikes, hitting everyone but Cloud Nyne, making everyone fall down in various places in the room.

"**Now then… where were we?"**

Cloud Nyne frowned, getting sure that Lau Shimin was ready for battle.

DGMDGMDGM

Kitty groaned as she sat up.

The hit from lust had slung her across the room, and she was sure by the pounding headache that she had a small concussion. Looking over herself gently she thought that she looked like shit.

Her right arm hurt from a strong lash, courtesy of Lusts claws. A strong kick to the stomach had quite possible broken a few ribs and she thought that if nothing else her left leg was at least twisted.

Looking up she saw Lust and sensei going at it, Lust completely focused on her and nothing else.

If she had the strength too, she could have killed her with her back turned… but she couldn't… she had no strength left. Another groan made her turn. What she saw made her smile. She couldn't… but someone else could.

DGMDGMDGM

Lust laugh shone through the room with a hollow echo, the woman beating down upon the giant monkey in front of her.

"**Come on now sensei… at least make this a challenge." **

Cloud Nyne smiled gently and made a small hmm.

As you wish Lust… Lau Shimin. The monkey came up with a leg and tried to kick lust in the face. Lust's arm quickly went up to block it, forcing the two into a standstill.

"**Well now… I wonder what to do" **Lust said gently.

"**I could kill your little pet first… and then go for you… break every bone in your finger piece by piece… rape you until your unconscious… then start again when you wake up… I could start a fire… give you more pretty scars to match your ugly face. Burn of your hair; stab out your eyes, cutting you up bit by bit… and there is no one to st…" **

Lust stopped talking. Looking down her torso she noticed a hand straight through her stomach.

Turning around, her eyes got wide as she saw Lulubell, barely standing, her free hand clutching her heart.

"**But how… you where tied down."**

Lust looked over to the chair, and noticed Kitty slumped over a lever, and the braces on Lulubell's chair opened.

Lulubell sighed. "God bye Lust… may your soul finally find rest."

Lust's face went from surprised to angry and she screamed… or roared; nobody who was awake was really sure. Her body faded and in one bright flash she was gone, only the echo of her scream left behind.

Lulubell fell to her knees, getting caught by Cloud Nyne as she started to fell into unconsciousness.

"Is Kitty ok?"

Cloud Nyne looked up, and saw that Kitty was still breathing.

"Yes… she is."

"Aiki too?"

Cloud Nyne looked over to where Aiki lay on the floor unconscious.

"I think so."

"Good… that's good."

And with that Lulubell fell unconscious again, Cloud Nyne noticing that she was silently crying, knowing that killing her inner Noah was probably the hardest thing Lulubell had done in her life.

DGMDGMDGM

When Lulubell woke up she found herself staring at a ceiling. A boring white ceiling with a lamp to light up everything around her. Looking around she sighed in relief as she noticed that she was in the infirmary before she gripped a hand over her heart as it started hurting.

Lifting the covers slightly she noticed a small white scar formed like a cross right over her heart, where Allen had stabbed her.

"You probably will have that scar for the rest of your life."

Lulubell looked up and saw Allen, covered in bruises and bandages smiled gently down on her.

Lulubell sighed. "I thought as much… I do apologize for the injuries."

"It wasn't your fault… Lust attacked me, not you."

Lulubell sighed and got comfortable, laying back down onto her pillow. "I feel so empty… so alone… to know that I will never hear her voice in the back of my head, or se her when I look into a mirror… it hurts so much."

Allen sighed, and gently walked over to Lulubell and opened his arms, Lulubell welcoming the hug, gently sobbing letting it all out.

After about 15 minutes she calmed down and let go of Allen's shirt, drying her tears.

"Sorry. I just needed to vent."

"I don't mind," Allen said smiling. "She has been with you for a long time right?"

Lulubell nodded. "Hey I promised you to talk didn't I… have time for some flashback moments?"

"Of course… if you want to talk about it."

"Now is as good a time as any right?"

Allen sat down, and Lulubell sighed. "As I have already said, all Noah's come from dysfunctional families… or maybe that's what the Noah spirit tries to tell you. I came from a small village in France along with my mother… there never was a father, I never asked about him and I don't particularly care either way."

"We were poor but tried to survive. I think my mom felt ashamed that I didn't have a father figure, because she constantly introduced me to new men she had meet. But they would all leave… it was clear what they wanted… and a child was not it. Around the age of ten things changed… my mother met a new man, who stayed."

"Problem was… he wasn't to gentle, and what little money we saved up he used for alcohol."

Allen sighed. "Great… he and my master should meet."

Lulubell huffed gently. "Yeah well… suddenly one day I wake up, he head feels like its splitting down the middle. I touch a hand to my forehead and feels something warm. Getting up I looked into the mirror, seeing a young dark shadow, and blood running down my face from a bunch of strange markings. I think I woke up every household within a 3 mile radius with my scream… and then I passed out."

"I woke up in hospital, hearing the doctors telling my mom that as far as they could tell nothing was wrong with me. They had no idea what the stigmata's could mean or how they got there but they didn't seem to be doing any harm. My mom took me home and I went to my room… as I heard a voice inside my head saying it was sorry for the pain, but she wanted to be my friend."

Allen's response was to laugh in a deep morose tone.

"Yeah it seems silly now… but then I was young without friends… and a voice who knew me almost better than I knew myself was willing to help me out in life… it was all so nice… until I turned 13. It was nearing Christmas, and I had been out all day trying to find something nice for Christmas. Just for once I wanted to be normal, have a tree if nothing else."

"I had stolen some cash from my stepfather's wallet, with Lusts insensitive that the drunk didn't need them. I found a small tree, about the size of a top hat and got home. As I did I heard the noise that meant that the man in the house was pissed. I sat down the tree and walked in to find my mom on the floor bleeding and bruised, the man living with us standing over her yelling about his money… I honestly don't remember much after that, it was all a blur. When I did come trough I saw a pool of blood, 2 figures on the ground, and a butcher's knife in my hands."

"Lust told me to run… and I did. For about 4 months I lived on the streets. Picking pockets, sleeping in churches, and so on… suddenly one day I woke to find a man standing over me. With him was a tall woman, with golden eyes and stigmata's."

"Another woman? I thought you and Road where the only girls."

Lulubell smiled. "You got to remember that this was a long time ago… It was not Road, it was the Noah of dreams that came before her. That's the reason as to why Road is so much younger than the rest of us and yet keeps getting called the first child… she is one reborn cycle longer than the others."

"Wow… ok so I am guessing the man was the Earl."

Lulubell nodded. "After getting found by him… I got a new family. One that cared, that never hurt me, who gave me clothes and fed me… without really asking for much in return."

Lulubell sighed gently but smiled as she turned to Allen.

"I will miss her… but I have a new family now. One that I will protect with my very being."

Allen smiled and rose from where he had been sitting next to Lulubell's bed.

"Why don't you get some rest… I'll come back later."

"I would appreciate that… and remember Allen; the shadow glancing in your reflection is not your friend."

And with that Lulubell closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep once again, laying her hand over her heart, feeling the scar which was all that remained of a long lost life.


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25

The matron in charge of the hospital wing was not an exorcist. She was neither a scientist nor a finder… and yet Lulubell could no nothing more than to wince at the glare the woman was currently giving her.

"Aww come on, I have been lying in this bed for almost two days. I am bored, please for the love of god let me go."

"You are not going anywhere until I know that you are healthy… given the fact that you still wince in pain every time someone gets near the scar over your heart, I don't see that happening any time soon. So lay back and relax Miss Noah, because you are not moving from that bed for quite some time."

A small chuckle made Lulubell turn around, seeing a tall woman, looking like she was nearing thirty smiling a small don't mess with me look.

"You are Lulubell Noah right?"

"Yes, that would be me," Lulubell said.

"I am Emilia, I am a tutor for one of the younger Exorcists here named Timothy… I have heard the rumors that you just recently started to learn how to read."

"Yeah… I grew up poor and had no chance of getting an education."

"Well I thought I could help you." Emilia smiled gently and held out a few books, placing them on the night table next to Lulubell. "These are a few classical books that I would recommend for everyone to read. These editions are re written with the intent of new readers… with bigger size on the words and less complicated words… if you are stuck here anyways, you might as well get some reading done."

Lulubell raised an eyebrow, taking up the first book, glancing over it. "So I just read?"

Emilia smiled. "I have found that the best way to learn to read is… well reading books. The more you read, the more you will recognize words, which will give you a bigger vocabulary and a thirst for more books."

Lulubell nodded. "All right… thank you."

"No problem Lulubell… if you need more books feel free to let me know."

And with that Emilia disappeared, Lulubell taking the top book from the pile, looking at the cover, shrugging and starting to read.

About an hour or two later, Kitty came walking into the hospital wing, not seeing Lulubell's face because it was obscured by the book she was reading.

"Having fun?" Kitty asked, smiling despite still having some cracked ribs.

Her smile disappeared as Lulubell didn't answer.

Kitty walked next to her, seeing Lulubell's eyes roll over the page. Kitty lifted an eyebrow amused, and gently tapped Lulubell's shoulder.

Lulubell got startled, and responded by throwing her hands up into the air, screaming out a surprised "SANCTUARY."

Kitty blinked. 'Sanctuary?' She took up the book that had fallen to the ground, looking at its cover.

"The hunchback of Notre Dame… that's some pretty heavy reading there Lulubell."

Lulubell sighed, relaxing as she realized that she wasn't going to be attacked, and took the book back from Kitty.

"Yeah… I got the children's version though, until my reading get's better… a woman came by with a lot of books to help me study on my reading, so that I had something to do while in here."

Kitty looked over to the pile of books, looking them over.

"Oliver Twist, Moby Dick, Treasure Island… wow this is quite the collection of works."

Lulubell smiled, finding her page in the hunchback of Notre dame, getting comfortable again. "Yeah… but I doubt that they are as good as this one."

"What makes you say that?" Kitty asked, sitting down on a chair.

Lulubell smiled. "A story about a man that needs to hide because his guardian tells him that he is different, a wish that he could be normal, a man he trust whispering lies to him and using him to get his own needs satisfied… this is like a Noah's biography."

Lulubell marked her page and closed the book, looking over at Kitty. Looking her new lover over, she sighed at bruises and bandages, seeing that Kitty was careful to not breathe deep.

"I am so sorry" Lulubell said, Kitty smiling gently.

"Not your fault… Lust was the one who did this, not you."

"I suppose so" Lulubell said sighing, laying her book on her night table, motioning for Kitty to join her on the bedside, Kitty sitting down, accepting the light hug Lulubell gave her.

"You can hug me tighter" Kitty said gently. "I'm not that fragile."

"You are to me" Lulubell said, kissing Kitty's cheek, the young blonde blushing.

The two stayed in each other's embrace for a while before Kitty rose. "Well I should leave you with your book… do you want me to get you something from the cafeteria?"

"Yes please" Lulubell said grunting.

She was starting to feel pretty famished. Kitty giggled and walked out of the hospital wing, Lulubell smiling at Kitty's retreating form before she reached for her book once again.

It was almost two weeks before Lulubell was allowed out of the hospital, as her chest stopped to hurt every time someone got near it. The scar was still there, but it didn't matter to Lulubell, she took it as a reminder of what she had once been. Lulubell huffed gently as she walked out of the hospital wing, meeting Cloud Nyne.

"Morning Lulubell, congratulations on the recovery."

"Gee thanks" Lulubell said, smiling gently as Lau Shimin jumped over to her head and started digging in her hair.

"Well, things have happened fast" Lulubell said, turning to her sensei. "And I need to do my part… I need a couple of blackboards if it can be arranged, as quickly as possible."

Cloud Nyne nodded, understanding what Lulubell had in mind. "Of course… need anything else?"

"Not at the moment… but once I am done writing I will go over the details with as many as possible, exorcists and finders overall, the more people are aware of what each Noah can do the better their chances are."

"Yes I agree" Cloud Nyne said nodding, walking with Lulubell down the hall.

"Hey out of curiosity… how much do you remember from when Lust tried to take over?"

Lulubell frowned, thinking back. "Not much really… I remember a fake earl in Utah… and one hell of a headache, but that's it."

Cloud Nyne nodded, understanding. "Then I should probably tell you… Lust told Allen that a Noah by the name of Road had raped him and removed his memories of the encounter."

Lulubell stopped and blinked, before she groaned and hid her face in her hand.

"It's true then?"

"Unfortunate for Allen, yes."

"Then you should go and talk to him when you have the time… I think he is trying to act like he don't care but…"

"yeah, I understand. Thanks sensei."

"No problem. Now I shall go and get someone to put up some blackboards in the meeting room, I hope that is enough for you."

"Yes, that'll work, thank you."

Cloud Nyne smiled and patted Lulubell on the shoulder, before she and Lau Shimin turned and walked down a corridor, Lulubell rushing down the other way towards the mess hall. Once there she looked around and found Allen sitting and munching on a huge chicken.

Lulubell walked calmly over and sat down next to him.

"Morning" she said as he turned to her.

"Oh, hi Lulubell, finally out of the hospital then?"

"Yes… hey Allen I talked with Cloud… apparently Lust said some things to you that I don't really remember… about some things that Road did to you in the rewinding town."

Allen stopped eating, looking up at Lulubell. He didn't say anything, but looked over at her.

Lulubell sighed, looking anywhere except at Allen. "I'm… so sorry."

Allen laid down the chicken leg that he had raised to his mouth down on his plate, sighing.

"So it is true huh… I was kind of hoping that Lust only said it to make me mad."

"It was probably part of it" Lulubell said, taking a chicken leg for herself, ignoring Allen's unimpressed look.

"Listen, if you need to talk to someone, you know where to find me, ok?"

"Yeah, thank you."

"No worries" Lulubell said rising. "Now if you will excuse me, I have some work to do."

Lulubell patted Allen gently on the head and rushed out of the mess hall, uncomfortable with the situation.

For the remainder of the day Lulubell stayed in the meeting room, putting in info on each Noah and their abilities as well as some distinctive features. She had been working for almost 3 hours when she noticed that she had company.

Turning she smiled as she saw Kitty and Aiki, walking up to her, looking at the board.

"Hi Lulubell" Aiki said grinning. "Sorry we couldn't be here before, we have been pretty busy."

"No problem, I know how things are in this place."

Lulubell sighed, motioning to the board. "So, meet my former family."

Kitty walked up to the board. On one side of the board, Lulubell had written in pretty good detail about how each Noah looked. Some people had less information than the others, but that was to be expected, considering that some of the Noah's hadn't been around for a long time.

In the same column of the details of the Noah's, Lulubell had written about each Noah's power, and a small weakness that each member had.

"Not bad" Kitty said, reading with fascination along the board. "Your calligraphy is going better too."

"Thank you" Lulubell said smiling.

"Why are there a few empty spots?" Aiki asked curiously, pointing to a rather big hold between two names.

"Well I arranged the Noah by which number they are… that hole there was mine. The one further up is for Wrath, and he won't be a problem until he comes back in a decade or so."

Lulubell sighed and laid down her chalk. "But that's enough of my family, how are you two doing?"

"Oh pretty good" Aiki said smiling. "I think me and Lavi are getting close to actually dating."

"You mean that you haven't been dating?" Kitty asked.

"We have been very good friends hanging out, nothing more."

Lulubell shook her head. "I don't get you and I don't wish to understand you either."

Lulubell looked over at Kitty as she suddenly realized something. "Hey… didn't you have a brother who is a finder here? Why haven't I met him yet?"

Kitty's face, who had been all smiles, turned somber.

Aiki on the other hand looked surprised. "She doesn't know?"

Kitty looked at the floor in shame.

"I thought you two were dating, why haven't you talked about this?"

Kitty sighed. "I didn't want things to be awkward between us."

Lulubell blinked. "I feel like I am missing something here, what's going on?"

Aiki turned to Lulubell, then back to Kitty before she sighed.

"Kitty you got to tell her, if you don't I will."

Kitty sighed, but nodded, turning gently to Lulubell, the woman shocked to see that Kitty's eyes were tearing up.

"Lenalee didn't know about it when you two first met me, because there are so many finders, and the exorcists never talk a lot with many finders because it is always a chance that the finders will… anyways she didn't know."

"Know what?" Lulubell asked.

Kitty swallowed, her gaze going to the floor. "Christopher and Tucker… they were two of the finders who died when y… when Lust invaded the last order with the level 3 Akuma."

Lulubell blinked. Then she sat down in a chair and took a few deep breaths. Then she looked up at Kitty, who were shaking gently. Lulubell motioned for the girl to come closer, and as Kitty walked up to her, Lulubell forced the young blonde onto her lap, where the two held each other in a hard embrace, as Kitty's waterworks started gently.

Lulubell looked up to see Aiki silently walking towards the exit, the girl signalizing that she would leave the two alone for some time. As the door closed, Lulubell spoke.

"I'm sorry for your loss."

Kitty just sniffed. "The worst part is that we never really saw eye to eye. Other than the mask he sent me once we never had much contact… in fact the mask was a small gift to apologize for leaving me behind, only because he felt obligated to do something."

Kitty sniffed but rose from her seat. "But we don't have time for this do we, you have a bunch of people to talk to right?"

Kitty pointed towards the blackboard, Lulubell nodding gently.

"Yeah, let's do this shall we?"

No more than an hour later, Lulubell stood in front of every exorcist in Europe, different branch leaders and a bunch of finders, telling everyone what she could about the Noah family. As she finished up her speech she looked out onto the people she talked too.

"Any questions?"

Lavi raised his hand gently. "Yes Lavi?"

"Just a small comment really, Allen, Krory, Lenalee, Yuu and I have fought a few of your family members and we made it out alive… any reason for this?"

"Pure luck" Lulubell said gently. "After what I gathered, in the ark you all would have died if not for Allen's spectacular piano playing."

Lulubell smiled. "Now Kanda did manage to kill Wrath, but as I have said before, Wrath will be back, sometime in the next twenty or so years. Krory did a good job with the twins, if he had lasted a bit longer and managed to stand up long enough to see that he hadn't killed the boys the odds would have been a bit better."

"You surprised Tykki on more than one occasion, and lately he has been in excruciating pain because of Allen's lovely sword. As for Road… well it boils down into two facts. Fact one, she is a curious child, she would give you a small sense of hope to see what you would do before she would crush both your hope and you. Fact two, she likes Allen and will come up with strange excuses to keep him around."

"Oh joy" Allen grumped where he sat, apparently still having problems dealing with Road's actions.

"However there is one thing I have left out" Lulubell said. "In terms of danger Road is only in third place… the first is of course the earl himself, but there is one Noah that is more dangerous than Road… her stepfather Cyril Kamelot. Basically he twiddles his fingers and your body ends up as a marionette."

Everyone gulped at this.

"The problem with Cyril is this" Lulubell said. "Even if we tie him up, as long as he can use his fingers he can use his powers."

"So what do you suppose that we do?" Krory was the one asking.

Lulubell shook her head. "I see no other way than to kill him… wait for the Noah of Desire to come back and kill it when it's weak."

"But how do we do that if he can stop us with simply raising a hand?" This time the question came from Miranda Lotto.

"I will let you know if I figure something out" Lulubell said. "In the meantime I suggest we all watch our backs if we are in Portugal, that's where he lives… together with his daughter."

Allen shuddered gently, as Tiedol rose from his seat, smiling at Lulubell.

"Thank you Miss Lulubell, you have been a great help."

Lulubell bowed with a smile. "You are most welcome."

Everyone rose from their seats, a few going up to read the boards better, some smiling gently to Lulubell, as if to apologize for thinking that she was still evil and plotting against them. Lulubell didn't mind, she just walked past all the people to the back where Cloud Nyne, Aiki and Kitty stood.

"Nicely done Lulubell" Cloud said smiling.

"Thank you" Lulubell said smiling. "Now sorry to sound rude, but I need some alone time."

"Sure Lulubell… let us know if you need us."

Lulubell nodded to her sensei and scratched Lau Shimin under his cheek before she left for her room.


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26

The day after her speech Lulubell hadn't done much. Currently she was sitting in her room, scowling angry at her own reflection.

It was so strange to not see Lust behind her, screaming at her at every small thing she did. Her eyes drifted to the green innocence shining gently through her blonde bangs.

"Innocence activate."

She smiled as her body changed, her nails and fangs growing longer, her skin and hair turning dark, her chestnut brown eyes turning a bewitching yellow. She felt strong in this form. Invincible. But still…

'Why does my skin and hair change? With lust gone, why can I still turn Noah when I activate my innocence? Maybe I still have my powers… or at least some of it. Right then let's see where my limits go… simple thing first, another human.'

Lulubell held her gaze to the mirror as she started thinking of Cloud Nyne, smiling as slowly but surely her face changed into the one of her sensei, with one minor difference, the green stigmata still solid on her face.

"All right then… animals next."

Lulubell swapped between a horse, dog, cat and a rat, deciding that animals of all sizes worked. Her first problems came when she tried turning into insects. Her body just didn't want to change form.

Lulubell guessed that something that small wasn't going to work anymore, not that it mattered much.

"Right, last test, elemental beings."

Lulubell remembered back to when she as the Noah of Lust had invaded the order, ending up almost drowning Miranda Lotto. An elemental change was hard, as they possessed no DNA but rather electrons and other scientific factors. Looking down at her hand she pictured it turning to water, sighing after 10 minutes without anything happening.

"Right, that's that then."

A knock on her door made Lulubell turn and deactivate her innocence.

"Yes?"

"Uh miss Lulubell can I talk to you?"

Lulubell frowned. She didn't recognize the voice, but none the less she opened her door. In front of her stood a young boy dressed in finder clothes, looking at her worried.

"Can I help you?"

"Um well I was at that thing you did, yesterday. And um, you said that two of the dangerous Noah's lived in Portugal?"

"Yes I did, what about it?"

"Well I'm from Portugal too and I get the newspaper from there every now and again… and um I kind of saw this article and…"

The boy ceased his stuttering and just handed over the newspaper to Lulubell. She took it gently, and saw a picture on the front page, of Cyril and Road Kamelot. Surprisingly they looked very glum.

"Can you read it for me? I'm afraid my Portuguese is a bit rusty."

"Yeah sure." The boy took the newspaper and started to read, translating the important parts.

"OK so apparently there was this meeting for peace between two nations where Cyril was sent as a diplomat. This guy raised a gun and aimed it towards Cyrill… then apparently a door opened and his wife entered… the man with the gun panicked and shoot her… she died before she hit the ground."

Lulubell blinked. "Tricia is dead? Damn no wonder Road and Cyril look so glum."

"Was she a Noah too?" The boy asked.

"No, but both Cyril and Road cared for her… as much as a Noah can care for a human I suppose. Thank you for telling me this… I'm sorry what was your name?"

"Frederic."

"Thank you Frederic. No problem Miss Noah. Now I got to go and do my job."

"Can I keep this?" Lulubell asked pointing at the newspaper.

"Sure no problem."

Frederic gave Lulubell the newspaper and rushed off. Lulubell looked at the picture of Road and Cyril, both looking sad as they posed for the photographer. There was no way that they had killed Tricia on purpose… she simply came into the room at the wrong time. Well… only one thing to do about this.

Lulubell laid the newspaper on her desk and picked up a small sheet of paper and walked out the door. Walking around for a bit she ended up in the dining hall as always, smiling as she found Kitty and Aiki talking together.

"Hey guys how are you?"

"Pretty good" Kitty said smiling. "I'm going out on my first mission soon, but I have to wait for my partner to finish eating."

She jerked a thumb to her right, where Krory was munching on a small mountain of food.

"Then I am glad I saw you before you went off, I need your help. How do you spell condolences?"

Kitty and Aiki shared a look. "Who are you apologizing to and for what?"

Lulubell sighed. "Long story short… someone I just until recently considered family has just lost someone close to them."

"You mean a Noah?"

Lulubell nodded. "Road just lost her mother… I just want to send her a small card, not from here of course but… she deserves to know that I'm sorry for what happened."

Kitty nodded. "All right… condolences… C-o-n-d-o-l-e-n-c-e-s, condolences."

"Thank you" Lulubell said, kissing Kitty gently on the lips. "Have fun on your mission, and come back in one piece please."

"Only for you" Kitty said with a small giggle rising from her seat as Krory walked up to her.

"Hey Krory… watch out for her would you?"

Krory smiled his usual unsure smile. "Of course Lulubell. You have my word."

Kitty and Krory walked out, leaving Lulubell and Aiki alone. "And you? What are you doing today?"

"Training" Aiki said sighing. "I can't control the gusts of wind just yet so I need some practice."

An amused chuckle made the two look up, seeing Lavi. "You should hold onto that thought for a while, you two and me are going out working."

"Well isn't that just perfect timing" Lulubell huffed, rising from her seat. "So where are we going?"

Lavi's smile faltered for a while. "Um… Portugal."

Lulubell groaned. "Oh joy."

"Hey now let's not worry too much, Portugal is a big country, what is the odds of us meeti"

"NO." Lulubell clasped a hand over Lavi's mouth. "Do not say anything to jinx this mission, we do not need the extra bad luck."

Lavi gave a thumbs up to signal that he understood.

"Right… shall we go and get our mission from Komui and get this over with?" Aiki asked.

"Sounds like a splendid plan to me" Lulubell said, following Aiki who had already started to walk out of the dining hall.

Komui meet them in his office, hiding under tons of paperwork sleeping soundly. Lulubell, still pretty shaken up over where she was forced to go, quickly woke him up by dragging the chair away from where the man in question sat, making him fall to the floor, waking up to see Lulubell's scowl.

"Mission… Portugal… hand over."

Komui simply blinked and rose from the ground, quickly finding the folder he was looking for.

"Right, right, sorry for last time."

"I'm not" Lulubell said. "You did what you had to do and probably saved my life because of it. I am sorry for sounding rude but I really don't want to be in Portugal, so just give us our mission so we can get this over with, hopefully without meeting my former family who wishes for my death."

"Yes of course" Komui said giving Lulubell the file in his hand. "It's a pretty straightforward mission, and Lavi is one of our best exorcists, so I don't think there will be much of a problem."

"So what are we doing?" Aiki asked, taking a seat.

"There is a wine orchard out in the Portuguese countryside that dates its origins back almost half a millennia. In all the years the orchard has been around, the grapes growing for the wine have been big and strong every season. Never have the orchard had problems with bugs, drought, flood or any other catastrophes."

Aiki blinked. "You mean that in five hundred years these people have always had perfect crops?"

"Yes" Komui said nodding gently. "Now we don't know where the innocence are, but it has to be somewhere within the property of the orchard itself. I have asked Allen to open a way for you, so you should hurry along before he goes on another mission himself."

"Sure" Lavi said, rising from his chair. "You heard the man ladies, go and get into uniform and I will meet you at the ark."

Komui smiled and waved at them as they left his office. "Have a nice trip" he called cheerfully.

No more than 5 minutes later Lulubell, Aiki and Lavi stood in front of the ark. Lavi was chatting with Allen as the two girls walked up to them, trying not to look like they were terrified.

Allen smiled reassuringly at them. "Come on guys, it won't be that bad."

"Oh yeah? Was your first mission all flowers and sunshine?" Lulubell asked.

Allen looked down at the floor rubbing his neck. "Well no, there was this level 2 akuma, and this living doll and and old man, and Kanda being stupid… but your mission will probably not be that bad."

"Reassuring words Allen, really."

Lulubell did not sound amused, and just walked past Allen though the ark. Aiki smiled apologetic.

"Sorry guys, I think she is still not completely over Lust's betrayal, and Portugal is Noah territory. She is probably a bit nervous."

"Well let's follow her before she leaves us all behind" Lavi said cheerfully, walking briskly into the ark.

Allen looked at Aiki. "They do know that I am the only one who can open the door for them right?"

Aiki giggled and gave Allen an amused shrug, gently skipping through the gate of the ark herself.


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Lulubell felt her right eye twitch as she stood in the Portuguese countryside. She felt she had every right to do so, given the circumstance. Allen had opened a door to Portugal for them and wished them all good luck. The moment the door had closed behind them they had appeared at their location.

The god damn biggest orchard Lulubell had ever seen. Aiki was apparently of the same opinion.

"How in the name of god himself are we going to find a piece of innocence here? This place is the size of Madagascar."

"Now, now" Lavi said patting Aiki on the shoulder. "It's not that bad. All we need to do is to start somewhere and observe our surroundings."

"But this could take ages" Lulubell pointed out, gesticulating to the trees on every side. "How in the world are we going to…" she stopped talking as a bell was heard to the east.

Turning that way they saw a small church and saw that most of the workers in the fields started to carry baskets of grapes towards it, probably finished for the day.

Aiki frowned. "That's odd."

"What is?" Lulubell asked.

"That they are going in already. I have lived in south Europe for a while and I know most of their social habits. And I am telling you, it's too late for a siesta and way too early for dinner."

"Then maybe there is something else going on" Lavi said, smiling and hitting Lulubell friendly on the shoulder. "See, clue number one, this will go great."

Lulubell did not share in Lavi's enthusiasm. "Would you stop jinxing this mission before we all die?"

Aiki smiled. "Now, now you two play along nicely and let us go and talk to the nice monks running this orchard ok?"

"We might as well" Lulubell huffed, starting to walk towards the church.

Lavi raised the only visible eyebrow he had surprised. "That's strange" he muttered.

"What is?"

"I meet Lulubell when we were on opposite sides, and she never acted like this. She was cold, aloof, and even downright carefree. But I don't remember a time when she barked and complained as she does now."

Aiki smiled. "Well I might have a theory about that."

"Oh really, what is that?"

"Well you said you had met Lulubell when she was with the Noah's… are you sure it was Lulubell and not the Noah of lust that behaved like that?"

Lavi opened his mouth, contemplated what Aiki had just said and closed it again.

He made a small mental note to talk to Bookman when they got back from the mission and hurried to catch up with Lulubell and Aiki who had rushed up to walk next to her friend.

Kitty smiled as she stared out of the window on the train she and Krory was sitting in. Heading out to Edinburg Kitty had originally wondered why she and Krory couldn't just use the ark, to which Allen replied that he did not want to use a power that was originally a Noah power to much, something she completely understood.

So the ark was reserved for people going away on longer distances, while Edinburg Ireland was so close to home that it did not hurt to use the train.

"So… what do you think of our mission?" Kitty looked away from the window to focus on Krory who was still reading through the report sent by the finders.

"I don't know" he said sighing.

"It's not really much to go on," Kitty said taking up the report from where Krory had put it down.

"A mystical sound coming from nowhere each night at the same time on a sheep farm? I mean what does that even mean?"

"You would be surprised at what you will find out here in the field of an exorcist."

"I guess" Kitty said, looking out towards the scenery outside the train. "So what was your first mission like?"

Krory winced. "I did what I had to do… and the villagers hated me for it afterwards."

Kitty winched. "Ouch, sounds rough."

"This job usually is. There will be happy times too of course, but usually… we need the innocence to defeat the earl. But the innocence usually bring incredible miracles to their surroundings… a village where nobody ever get sick, a holy church with a bell that send away all manner of beasts, the list goes on… and we come and take their miracles away. It's not fair, it's not nice… but it's our job, one we need to do to keep the world safe."

"I suppose so" Kitty said, looking up as a voice was heard over the train's intercom.

"We are nearing our final destination Edinburg; remember to not leave anything behind, exit at the right side of the train."

"Well then Krory, shall we head on out?"

Krory smiled but rose himself. "Of course Kitty, lead the way."

"I don't get these people" Aiki said simply sitting down under a grape tree.

"Everyone we ask say the same thing, when big Jack shines it's the signal for the bell to call us home, what does that even mean?"

Lulubell sighed and crossed her arms. "It does seem pretty silly… and when we ask who Big Jack is all we get is that he's the pride of the orchard and the savior of them all."

Lavi smiled and lay one hand on each girls shoulder. "Now, now, let's not fret, maybe all we need is a different perspective."

Lulubell looked up as Lavi said it. "Of course… that might help."

She turned to the other two. "I need you two to shield me for a while."

Aiki raised an eyebrow. "What's up Lulubell?"

"After that whole… Lust business I decided to see if I still had some of my Noah power… and I do. It's not as strong or as varied as before, but I can still use it… I thought that if I flew over the area, maybe I'd see something."

"Not a bad idea" Lavi said, looking around where they stood. "No one is staring Lulubell, you may start transforming."

Lulubell nodded and closed her eyes. Aiki tried to not scream and jump backwards as Lulubell suddenly changed into a hawk.

The bird shook it's wings and took to the sky, leaving the two others behind on the ground.

"OK that was freaky" Aiki muttered.

"That was nothing" Lavi said. "You have heard of the stunt Lust pulled off at the old HQ right?"

"I got the basic details, she disguised herself as a chief and infiltrated the order and released a ton of high level akuma to go rampaging around right?"

Lavi nodded. "Yes… but the thing was that she infiltrated us almost a week before she acted… and no one noticed. She played the character she was impersonating to perfection, even participated in a few discussions on good and bad and who was an ally and such… then no more than fifteen minutes later Johnny had a spear through his shoulder."

Lavi shook his head in wonder. "I don't blame Lulubell for this… not anymore at least, but I sometimes look back to wonder how lust fooled us all playing a role that was so not her."

Lavi's thoughts were interrupted as a shadow informed the two that Lulubell had returned.

In midair the hawk changed into the blonde who puffed gently. "Wow… that took way more power than I thought."

Lavi smiled. "Did you find anything?"

Lulubell looked up to him, a huge grin on her face. "Oh you have no idea."

Walking through the Irish countryside, Kitty couldn't do more than to grin at the atmosphere.

"So strange that someplace this idyllic could be connected with something like the innocence" she muttered.

Krory looked around, not smiling. "Just because something seems idyllic it doesn't always mean that it is idyllic. Keep your eyes open at all times Kitty."

Kitty was halfway about to say that Krory was a worry wart, until she remembered her one and only discussion with Lust, although she didn't know it at the time.

"Say that you are being sent out on a stakeout mission with big orders of not getting spotted. So you are out there in the middle of nowhere when you really get the urge to… go into heat. So you look around and deduce that there are no humans to fool around with but see that a pack of sheep is grazing on a nearby hill."

"All right so there might be something lurking around… where are we going exactly?"

"We're almost at the hill where music has been heard. The finders could only narrow it down to the general area but if we pay attention maybe we will find something they didn't."

Krory and Kitty came to the top of the hill, Kitty's eyes widened as she saw the field in front of them.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me… you could easily place 5 soccer fields on this land."

Krory chuckled. "Yeah… we should start at once, the faster we find something the faster we can get home."

"Right" Kitty said taking out her mask. "My lion form should help out a bit here I think, too bad I still can't make more than 5 clones at once."

Kitty placed her mask over her face and activated her innocence, quickly making 5 duplicates of herself. "Right… can you take the sky Krory? I'm not so good with heights."

"Of course" Krory said smiling, stepping up on the traditional stone fence surrounding them. "Let me know if you find anything."

"Yeah, you too."

And with that the two started looking through the field, all the while not noticing a pair of golden eyes paying attention from a nearby tree branch.


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 28

"So what did you find?" Aiki asked as Lulubell had started leading the other two down a lane of grape trees.

"Well it's going to be hard explaining" Lulubell said, still wondering how in the world she had seen what she had seen. "All these trees grow in a pattern. Viewing them from above the picture was formed as a cross… a Celtic cross for some reason, but anyhow it was a cross."

"All right" Lavi said, walking on the other side of Lulubell. "So we have an orchard shaped like a cross, anything else?"

"Oh yes the best part" Lulubell said. "In the middle of the cross there was a big empty space like nothing grew there… except for one huge grape tree, the biggest I have ever seen. If it's not big Jack then nothing here is."

Lavi grinned and started jogging. "All right let's get this show on the road… and you said bad stuff was going to happen."

In the nanosecond that followed Lavi's voice, everything surrounding the 3 people exploded.

After the smoke cleared, Lulubell sat up and saw that the surrounding area was filled with akuma. She sighed, rose, walked over to Lavi and hit him over the head.

"GOD DAMNIT BOOKMAN JR YOU HAD TO JINX IT DIDN'T YOU?"

DGMDGMDGM

Kitty huffed. She was tired, hungry and exhausted. One of the main problems she usually had in lion form was that the more she made the faster she used up her energy.

She needed to sit down… maybe call off a clone or two and rest for a while. She sat down near the fence, closing her eyes and enjoying the sounds of music filling her ear… wait music?

Kitty opened her eyes and looked around. Somewhere someone was playing something… it was so low she could barely hear it but it was there somewhere. Kitty strained her ears to listen, not noticing a young girl leaning over the fence to look at her.

"Ne what are you doing?"

Kitty jumped straight from sitting position to spin around.

The girl laughed. "That was funny, do it again."

Kitty huffed looking at the girl in front of her. No more than twelve, large curious dark eyes and a mop of blue black hair, currently licking away on an orange lollypop.

Kitty sighed and calmed down a bit. "Who are you and where did you come from?"

"I came from over there" the girl said simply, pointing in the direction of the nearby village. "And I don't want to tell you who I am, it's a secret."

"That's nice kid" Kitty said, frowning and looking around. The sound had disappeared.

"What are you doing?" The girl asked again.

"Working" Kitty said simply.

"That sounds boring… play with me instead."

Kitty looked at the girl who smiled friendly at her, all the while licking on that darn lollypop.

"Sorry kid, no time, I need to work."

The girl pouted. "You're no fun… play with me when you have finished working?"

"That could take a long time kid, you sure your parent's won't be worried about you?"

The girl smiled. "Daddy let's me play as much as I want."

"And your mother?"

The girl's smile disappeared. "Dead… daddy and I buried her yesterday."

Kitty looked up at the girl. "I'm sorry for your loss."

The girl shrugged. "She was weak from before anyway, it was better this way."

The girl did a complete 360 and looked up at Kitty again with a smile. "Promise you will play with me when you are done working?"

Kitty scratched the back of her head. "You still on about that? Fine I'll play with you, now go home and let me work."

"Pinkie swear?" The girl asked, holding out a small hand.

"Aren't you a little old to use Pinkie swears?"

"Aren't you too old to search for hidden treasures?"

'Touché' Kitty thought shrugging, taking the girl's pinkie with her own. "Now for the love of god kid, go home, it's almost midnight and it's a school day tomorrow."

"Hai hai" the girl said, rising from where she had bended down on the fence, to skip down it humming a merry and yet disturbing tune.

The moment she had gone Kitty turned and stopped. "Wait a minute… how did she know I was looking for a hidden treasure?"

DGMDGM

Explosions were heard all around where Aiki stood. Swinging her fans she could do little more than to keep the unending horde of level 1 akuma at bay. Behind her she noticed a fire, understanding that Lavi were doing his best at his end.

Swinging her fans down hard, sending about a dozen akuma back into each other before they exploded, Aiki turned the other way, seeing Lulubell to her right, taking a hand's on experience clawing and biting at everything that came at her.

Aiki screamed as Lulubell was hit by a surprise bullet, flying down into the ground in front of her. Aiki noticed the plethora of dark stars forming in Lulubell's face as the woman in question sat up, before the dark green stigmata on her forehead made them vanish.

"You ok Aiki?"

"Yeah" Aiki reassured her friend, nodding gently.

"Then stop dawdling and help me finish these bastards off."

Aiki grinned and swung her arms again, her fans lighting up as she sent a small hurricane towards the scattered akuma. As the dust calmed down the three exorcists noticed that they once again were alone in the orchard.

Lulubell rose too her feet, panting heavily and then turned on Lavi again.

"One more word out of you… I swear to god, just one more word and I don't care if I become a fallen one I will kill you were you stand."

Aiki frowned. "Oh come on Lulubell lighten up, it wasn't his fault the akuma ambushed us."

Lulubell groaned, knowing that Aiki was right. "Sorry" she mumbled. "This place makes me nervous. Now let's go before something else happens."

Lavi smiled. "It's no problem Lulubell, people have always been a bit shaky when they meet akuma before, it's nothing new."

"It is for me" Lulubell said. "I'm not used to my powers and I know my family and their powers so well that the thought of them looking for me to kill me is terrifying to my very bones."

Lulubell sighed and started walking in the right way towards the huge tree she knew was somewhere around, hoping that nothing worse than Akuma was out to get them at the moment. Walking through the path, the tree suddenly came to a clearing and Lulubell stopped.

"Wow… it's even bigger than I thought it was looking at it from above."

Aiki gaped. "That's no tree" she said simply, shaking her head. "That is a small castle."

Lavi could do nothing more than to scratch the back of his head. "Well I think Lulubell is right, this has to be big Jack. Now then, let's see what secrets Big Jack can reveal."

Lavi walked up to the tree, grabbing hold of a branch and starting to climb. Aiki started walking around the tree, looking for any sign of the location of the innocence.

Lulubell quickly looked around to watch for enemies, and then deftly changed into a mole, digging under the roots of big Jack. The three looked around for a while, Lulubell appearing from under the ground after 30 minutes transforming back, shaking soil out of her hair.

"Nothing under here" she said, looking at Aiki who were looking inside a hole in the tree.

"Nothing here either" she grumped.

"This is getting ridiculous; it's got to be here." Lulubell looked at the tree her hand itching the back of her head. "Maybe we are missing something" she said looking up towards the green grapes… 'Wait a minute.'

Lulubell looked over her shoulder to the rest of the trees. Then she laughed. Loud and hilariously.

Lavi looked at her. "Lulubell what's wrong?"

"The grapes… hahaha they're green. The rest of the grapes in this orchard are traditional purple wine grapes, but big Jack's grapes are green. The hints are staring us in the eyes."

Lulubell continued to laugh. "They have been right in front of us all this time and we have looked everywhere except in front of our darn noses."

Lavi and Aiki looked at each other, and started laughing too at the silliness. Trust the exorcists to look everywhere except right in front of them.

"All right that's enough" Lavi said after a while, wiping his eye dry after the laughter tears that had fallen. "So what do we do? How are we to know if the innocence is in the grapes? Do we bring all the clusters?"

"Maybe that's not necessary" Aiki said looking at the grapes. "Maybe all the grapes are real and the innocence is just giving them their colors from another place, no way for us to know for sure?"

Lulubell frowned, an idea forming. "Give me 5 seconds to test something out."

Lulubell walked over to the tree, reaching up to pluck a grape loose from the others taking a bite. Chewing thoughtfully she nodded as if coming to a conclusion, spitting out the piece she was chewing. She placed her sharp nails on the tree and quickly ripped at it.

Aiki and Lavi stepped back as the tree ripped in two and fell. Aiki opened her mouth to ask what the hell she was doing but stopped as in the middle of the stump that was left of big Jack a green cube sat glowing. Lulubell walked up to the stump and pried it loose walking over to her companions, giving the innocence to Lavi.

"Mission complete, can we go home now?"

"How did you know it was in there?" Aiki asked.

"The grapes tasted funny, but still tasted like grape… I figured photosynthesis had something to do it, and since I knew the innocence wasn't underground it had to be in the tree itself, Innocence can't destroy innocence and therefore no matter what I did to the tree the innocence would be ok. Now can we go before the angry big Jack worshippers or something worse come for us?"

DGMDGM

Krory found Kitty crouching in the field as the night was slowly turning into day. "Hey Kitty are you having any lu…"

"SHH."

Krory stopped talking as Kitty hushed him, the blonde straining her ears.

"Do you hear that?"

Krory lifted an eyebrow, but tried to listen in. He opened his eyes again. "Very faintly… but yes."

Kitty shook her head. "I don't understand it, I have been trying to figure out where the sound is coming from but no matter where I go the voice get's lower, it's going to drive me insane."

Kitty stopped talking and strained her ears again; walking a few steps away from Krory, then back, to the right, left, south.

"Dangit where is it coming from?" she growled and tried to turn around, and tripped over her own feet falling to the ground. She sighed and was about to sit up… and stopped.

"Kitty? What's wrong?"

Kitty didn't answer Krory, but simply held her ear towards the ground. "Cheetah," she mumbled, her form changing into the fast cat.

A fun fact Kitty had learned about Cheetah's, was that unlike the other big cats, a Cheetah's claws couldn't be pulled into the paws. They were always out, working as a way to stay rooted to the floor when they run as to not trip and fall, like the spikes on a soccer players shoes.

In her Cheetah form, her fingernails grew out long and sharp. Kitty applied her new nails to dig in the ground, now and then pausing to lie her head down, moving a few inches and repeating the process.

Krory was about to ask Kitty once again what she were doing, when Kitty rose triumphantly, holding a green box in her hand.

She smiled and turned to Krory. "No wonder I couldn't find it, it was bellow us the entire time, strange how that works huh?"

And with that said Kitty deactivated her innocence, and fell exhausted and unconscious into Krory's arms.

Krory smiled, gently taking the Innocence held in Kitty's hands into his own pocket away from curious eyes and carried Kitty down to the farm that the field belonged to, glad that the order had arranged for the two to sleep at the nice old couple's house.


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter 29

When Kitty woke the next day, she noted that she was in a bed she could not remember getting into the previous day. Rising up in a sitting position she saw that her jacket and shoes stood together, her jacket hung on a clothing hanger on a nearby mirror. Her mask lay next to her on the bedside table, as did her headband. Dragging a hand through her golden locks, Kitty rose and stretched.

The door opened and Krory walked inside.

"Morning Petro san, had a good sleep?"

"Yeah… I suppose you were the one to carry me here?"

"Yes. Thank you for finding the innocence so quick. I have alerted HQ; they said that they'd send Allen to pick us up as soon as they can pry him from the breakfast table."

Kitty giggled, and then remembered something. "Hey Krory, I met this girl yesterday, and I kind of promised to play with her after I finished working… Do you think I have the time to see if she is waiting out by the fields before Allen comes?"

"I don't see why not; just get some food in you before you go. The farmers have made a small banquet as thanks for doing something about the music; apparently they have had some nightmares based off it for ages."

As soon as Kitty had gotten some food in her stomach she walked out towards the field. She quickly spotted the girl, who sat waiting for her at the fence, smiling as she spotted Kitty walking towards her.

"Morning kid… somehow I thought I would find you here."

"Well you promised to play with me."

Kitty shook her head amused. "Shouldn't you be in school?"

"Nah, school's not interesting."

"Maybe not, but it is important."

"Not to me, and you aren't winning this discussion… unless you plan on dragging me back to a school you don't know where is."

"I suppose you have a point" Kitty said sitting down next to the girl, ruffling her spiky blue hair.

"Hey stop it."

Kitty did, noting that the girl looked annoyed at the touch. "So what do you want to play kid? I got a few minutes before I have to go back?"

The girl looked at her, a curious look on her face. "Why did you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Promise to play with me. You don't know me… I could be a crazy psychopath for all you know."

"You look like you are twelve… somehow I think I'll survive."

The girl grinned and giggled. "Oh… I wouldn't be too sure of that little Miss exorcist."

Kitty had barely moved to look shocked at the girl when she noted that her surroundings changed. Suddenly she didn't stand in the middle of a field, but in a strange room that looked like a mix between a location of Alice in wonderland, and a children's room, only 5 times as scary.

Another giggle made her turn around, and she saw the girl again, leaning up to a wall.

Kitty cursed herself. "Blue spiky hair, always munching on some sort of lollypop, wearing a white shirt and a blue skirt… you are Road Kamelot aren't you?"

Road smiled, Kitty looking as her skin turned grey, her hair black, and her eyes a vibrant golden yellow. "Yes… I am Road Kamelot, the Noah of dreams"

Kitty shook her head at her own stupidity, hoping that Krory had taken notice of her absence.

Looking at Road's face she raised an eyebrow. "Huh, so that's how a true Noah look's… I'm so used to seeing the middle stigmata green… Lulubell sends her condolences for your mother by the way."

Road's smile vanished then Kitty noted the girl's face turned into a small furious glare. "Lulubell can take her apologies and shove it… the Noah family will have no more to do with her."

"Yeah I could tell… Lust didn't like me much either when she now and then tried to take over or make Lulubell kill us all… the headache poor Lulubell got was quite intense. Then again I didn't care much for what Lust tried to do with Lulubell either."

"You speak of the two as if they were different" Road observed curiously.

"I know that the two are different" Kitty said. "Just as I know that it was the Noah of dreams that supposedly raped Allen Walker… not the 12 year old girl Road Kamelot that is currently being brainwashed by said Noah memory."

The rebuke cost her Kitty noted a second later, when she was attacked from behind by pointed candles that drove into her back.

Road frowned at her. "And who told you about this happening that I supposedly did to Allen?"

"Lust did… and Lulubell confirmed it."

Road opened her mouth, and were probably going to say something, but was interrupted as one of the walls exploded. The smoke that billowed for a second later make Kitty cough, but looking up she suddenly saw an incredible sight.

Allen stood over her, his eyes hidden under his innocence mask, his blade pointed at Road's neck, the girl observing this and decided not to move, only smiled gently at him.

"Hi Allen… have you come to play with me too?"

"Kitty are you ok?"

"Yeah… I think I got burned by some candles but else I am fine."

"Good. Walk through the wall, Krory is waiting by the door I have opened. Walk through it and close the door and get back to HQ. I'll be right behind you after Road and I have a little chat."

"I get to be alone with you Allen? Oh goodie."

Road stopped talking as Allen's blade tipped closer to her neck, and Kitty swore that she for a second saw Road wince, and a bit of black smoke evaporate from the blade.

She got up to her feet and rushed towards the exit, only turning to politely say, "Nice to meet you Road, we must continue our game another time," before she ran off.

Allen raised the mask off his eyes, to glare directly into Road's eyes.

"Am I correct in assuming that you can get anything to appear inside these walls?"

"You are… what of it?"

"Make a mirror. A big one, hanging right behind you."

"And I should do as you ask because?"

"Because you owe me that much."

Road blinked, but raised her right hand to snap them together, a mirror appearing at her back.

Allen looked away from her, to the mirror and the black shadow behind her. "YOU… What kind of monster makes a twelve year old girl commit an act as heinous as rape?"

Road rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to talk, but was stopped as Allen raised his sword to her throat once again.

"You do not speak… this is between me and dreams."

"Do not speak to me with such formality Allen… it's Road who has a crush on you not me."

"Formality? You rape me and try to talk about formality?"

"I just told you that Road is the one who has an unhealthy obsession with you… until you embrace your destiny as the 14th you are nothing to me."

"And yet you raped me."

"Yes I did… and nothing is going to change that, so why don't you say what you wanted to say Allen?"

Allen looked away from the dark shadow in the mirror, and turned back to Road who stood still, her arms crossed, looking bored and restless.

"I want my memory back."

Road looked up into his face then. "Before you start riling yourself up Allen there is some things I should tell you. And I would ask that you refrain from yelling, considering whom it is you are talking to."

"When I was in the middle of… well having fun, you seem to forget that we had another guest watching."

Allen's eyes widened in realization. "Lenalee."

"Correct. And after I finally got bored you begged me to erase her mind… not your own, only hers. Lenalee protested, saying that she wasn't going to go along with it… honestly I didn't care, and hadn't even considered removing your memory in the first place… but then you upped the ante… and offered me a kiss for the trouble, if I erased Lenalee's mind. I got intrigued and asked Lenalee if she could top the offer. She gave me five minutes of being able to do anything to her without struggling to erase your mind. I thought about it and knocked her out. I then went to you and got my kiss, before erasing your mind. Walking back to Lenalee I woke her up, had another 5 minutes worth of fun, and then erased her mind."

Road looked at Allen, cocking her head to one side. "I did not erase your mind for free Allen… if you want that memory back… it will cost you. And to be honest it boggles the mind wondering why you would want to remember the things I did."

"It's not up to you to decide what I should remember."

"Said the crow calling the raven black… should I then also find Lenalee and restore her memory?"

Road shook her head. "Not that it matter to me. In the end you will all find yourself placed where you should be… she in chains or dead, you at our side as the 14th."

"I will never be a Noah Road. Not now, not never. I'd rather kill myself at the first sight of him trying to wake up. Now give me your price Road."

"The price hasn't changed" Road said. "A kiss on the mouth Allen, and no small peck either."

"Fine" Allen said, removing his sword. "But change back. I'd rather kiss Road Kamelot than the Noah of dreams."

Road smiled impishly, but changed back into her other form. "I'm afraid that with me you can't have one without the other."

"And with me Road, you have to pick either of the other" Allen said simply.

Before Road managed to ask what he meant Allen kissed her. Not a peck, but not a full blown French kiss either. A simple kiss, lingering just long enough for Road to be satisfied. As Allen stepped back to allow both to breathe again, Road noted that he held her cheeks in his hands.

"I have nothing against you Road… only against the monster inside you. If you want me, you have to let her go. If you can't do that, we can't be together… You should make that very clear in your head."

Road didn't answer, simply held up a finger to his forehead. Suddenly a plethora of memories rushed to Allen's brain, and he fell to his knee's holding his head. As the memories finally calmed down and Allen could calmly figure out what had happened he felt no pain, only disgust. He looked up at Road who smiled down at him.

"You imply that I need your permission to be with you… however given the memories you have just gotten back I think it's fair to say that if I want you I will take you. I could do it now you know… tie you up to the wall by my candles, enjoying that bo…" Road stopped talking then.

Allen looked at Road curious as her face went from amused to shock and… was that sadness? Road snapped her fingers, and one of her door's appeared. Without another word Road rushed through it, her illusions disappearing around her.

Allen shakily rose to his feet, wondering what had happened to make Road hurry off without even a teasing good bye.

…

"Can you please repeat that one more time?"

Lavi flinched. "Allen is busy and can't open a door for us, the order has told us that we are getting picked up by a carriage with some fellow exorcists and that we are to take a boat back to HQ from Lisbon."

Lulubell groaned. 'Lisbon… Cyril's city. Of course they were going to send her to Lisbon.'

She decided that right then and there she hated the order more than she did as a Noah.

"All right she said after a while. Not like we have a choice, let's hurry on before it gets dark. Lavi if you hear Road singing, you drag Aiki with you in the general opposite direction."

Aiki wondered if she should laugh or not. "Oh come on, Lisbon is a big place, the odds of us… NO… DON'T START THIS AGAIN, YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED THE LAST TIME."

Aiki held up her hands to calm Lulubell down. "Sorry, I'll stop, let's all try to get along shall we? Now Lavi, where is the carriage?"

"It's scheduled to meet us at the gates in a couple of minutes; they sent a golem telling about us."

"Then let's go to the gates. We can take it from there, can't we?"

"Yeah, sure" Lulubell said, trying to shake the dread she felt.

Soon enough a carriage did arrive, all three of the exorcists surprised to see who sat in it from before.

"General Sokaro?"

"Yo. Get in would ya, I'd like to be in Lisbon sometime before midnight."

The exorcists climbed into the wagon, seeing that Sokaro wasn't alone, but accompanied by 3 girls dressed in casual clothing.

"Ah right, guys, this is my new apprentices. Triplets, all three aligned with the three innocence I had carried around. How strange isn't that?"

Aiki looked at them all. They all had the same exotic tanned skin, and almost white blonde hair. The one sitting furthest in away from the door had her hair flowing long and straight down, a pair of black glasses covering her eyes. Aiki noted that she somehow seemed to notice each time there was even the tiniest of sounds.

Looking to the middle one, she saw a pair of dark green eyes hiding under her short spiky white hair, at least what Aiki saw of her hair hiding under the black hat she had thread down over her ears. But she wasn't looking at them, but rather at her sister who seemed to be making signs… Aiki noticed them at once.

Deaf signs, the middle girl must be deaf. The last triplet had a sapphire blue tint in her blue eyes, her hair tied in a ponytail, with a simple smaller braid hanging loose from right over her left ear down to her neck. She wore a shawl around her neck, the shawl the same black as her sisters' hat and glasses.

Sokaro smiled. "Man, just wait until I get to tell Cloud Nyne that I have 3 monkeys of my own."

"Hey" Aiki bristled. "Who are you calling a monkey?"

"Us probably. It was the girl in the glasses that spoke."

She smiled and placed her hands over her eyes. Her sister next to her took the hint and placed her own hands over her ears, the last one covering her mouth.

Lavi blinked. "Nothing seen, nothing heard, nothing said. A blind, a deaf and a mute."

"Correct" Sokaro said. "You get used to it after a while. Now the blind girl is Cecilia."

Cecilia smiled. "A pleasure" she said, looking towards their feet.

"The deaf girl is Helen."

Helen turned from her mute sister who were still doing signs for her, and turned and talked to them, in the way that deaf often talked. "Nas tu mee u."

"And lastly there is Lana."

Lana smiled and waved gently.

"Their last name is Saru… perfectly fitting if you ask me."

Lavi smiled and turned to the three, speaking while at the same time using deaf signs. "It is a pleasure to meet you" he said smiling. "My name is Lavi, this is Aiki and Lulubell."

"Hi" Aiki said. "Nice to meet you Lulubell" supplied.

Helen spoke up in her strange mute voice again. "Plesu. But no neeh sign, ah reahd lips."

Cecilia smiled and reached over, gently asking for a hand.

Lulubell who sat closest offered hers, and soon Cecilia's hands traced over her face.

"What are you doing?" Lulubell asked.

"I'm taking a good look of your face… this is the only way I know how."

Lavi was the next, Cecilia stopping slightly over his eye patch but made no comment before she continued on tracing his cheekbones.

Aiki was last, having to lean forward in the carriage for Cecilia to reach her. "You've got a beautiful smile" Cecilia said fondly.

"Thank you" Aiki said. "You got lovely hands."

"I still can't believe the odds" Lulubell said. "Triplets, all eligible for the exact innocence you bore on you, one deaf, one blind and one mute, what are the odds of that happening?"

"I got two more things to add in to sweeten the odds" Sokaro said. "Guys, show the new guys your Innocence."

Lavi, Lulubell and Aiki could do little more than to gape as Cecilia lifted away her glasses, her eyes a milky grey, with a green cross going through her pupils.

Helen lifted her hat, turning sideways so that the green scar embedded in her ear showed, and Lana dragged lose her shawl, showing a green diamond shining over her vocal cords.

"All parasitic innocence… and all based on the part of their body they normally don't use. Cecilia can see heat, and can therefore see who is a person and who is an akuma… not unlike young Walker, only a tad different. Helen can hear the enemy's voice, knowing when they come and what they plan to do… and Lana sings a tone that hypnotizes the enemy into doing whatever she wants them to do, it's all quite fascinating."

Lavi looked like his mind had broken… he was probably trying to figure out the exact odds of this happening.

Lulubell had given up long ago. The carriage stopped and a finder's voice rose up. "We're here sir."

Lulubell looked out the window. They were indeed at the outskirts of Lisbon.

"Why aren't we driving inn?" Lavi asked.

Sokaro looked at Lulubell. "After the last info we got, we were told to be cautious in Lisbon… driving through the streets like this would not be cautious."

Everyone exited, Cecilia pulling out a white stick to navigate.

"Right here is the deal" Sokaro said. "We are going to have to split up, we meet tonight at pier 16 down at the docks. Our ship leaves at 6 in the morning, but the sooner we get on and can hide from any eventual Noah's the better. I'll take the girls down east, you go down south. Come on girls."

And with that Sokaro left, Helen, Lana and Cecilia following him.

"All right" Lavi said taking the other route that Sokaro had pointed out. "Well Lulubell, I suppose you should know the best route to avoid getting captured, which way should we go?"

Lulubell looked around. "Well it all depends I su…pose…" Lulubell stopped, an idea forming in her head.

"Guys… you know how I have been afraid ever since we got this mission?"

"Yeah, what's your point?"

"You know how I said I had no idea how to take down Cyril Kamelot?"

"Yeah, again, what's your point?"

"I got an idea to take down Cyril Kamelot."

Lavi and Aiki looked at each other.

"All right, what do you need us to do?"

"Well I need Lavi's headband."

Lavi frowned but gave her his headband as she held out a hand. Quickly she turned on her innocence and changed form. In front of them a beautiful woman stood, dragging Lavi's headband over her face to hide the green stigmata, making her newly brown hair flow over it. She took off her black and red order jacket, opening a few extra buttons on her white shirt showing a lot more cleavage than she should.

"Lulubell what are you doing?"

"Slaying my cousin without him knowing about it said" Lulubell, her voice changed into a lovely falsetto. "Now you go down that road" she said, handing over her jacked to Aiki.

"Take the side roads, the back alleys, the smaller the streets the better. If I am not at the pier by nightfall… I'm probably not coming."

"You expect us to leave you alone here? Are you insane?"

"Listen, this is not something I can do with someone else with me… I know my family… I know Cyril Kamelot and know his weakness."

"And what weakness is that?"

Lulubell smiled and winked, her new eyelashes looking twice as long as any normal eyelash should be. "Well that's easy… his weakness is women."

Aiki lifted an eyebrow. "Didn't his wife recently die?"

"Yes and the poor man has probably gone too long without a grown woman's embrace… something I am willing to provide, I'll even give him that little extra… free of charge. Now remember, go down the alleys. I'll see you tonight… I hope."

And with that Lulubell sauntered down an open road, walking determined towards the Kamelot estate. Once there she saw Cyril Kamelot tending the garden and took a deep breath before plastering a sultry smile on her face.

"Lord Kamelot?"

Cyril turned, seeing Lulubell, the woman in question smiling as she saw him look her over.

"Can I help you my dear?"

"I heard milord was feeling bad… your poor wife all gone… and no woman left behind to tend to your poor needs."

Cyril lifted an eyebrow, and beckoned a servant over. "Where is Road?"

"She went out to play sir, she told me to tell you that she would be back when she got bored."

"Very well."

Cyril smiled and opened the gate, allowing Lulubell entry.

"What is your name my dear?"

"Robin… my sweet mother had a thing for birds."

"Well then my little bird… shall I make you sing?"

"Lead the way milord and I will do whatever you want of me."

And led her inside he did. And as soon as he had locked the door to his room and turned towards her again she kept up appearances.

As he dragged her onto his bed she giggled… however her giggles stopped and his smile faltered the moment Lulubell pierced her innocence enhanced fingers through his chest and held his heart in her hands.

As soon as the life left his eyes Lulubell quickly changed back to her own self, and then quickly to a small Robin. Flying up to the open window in the room she turned around as Road's door appeared out of nowhere, Road running out screaming for her father.

Silently she apologized to Road and flew off, not wanting to stay and get captured the moment someone understood that something was up. The rest of the Noah's where probably already on their way.

Flying towards the ocean Lulubell used some time but found her friends, appearing and transforming back in an alley without anyone giving her any looks. She sighed and walked up to Lavi and Aiki who were talking to Sokaro… or rather where getting yelled at by Sokaro.

"What have I missed" she asked coming up behind them.

They turned at her. Sokaro walked over to her and hit her over the head.

"OW, what was that for?"

"WALKING STRAIGHT INTO ENEMY TERRETORY… WHAT THE HELL WOMAN?"

Lulubell rubbed her head, taking off her borrowed headband, giving it back to Lavi.

"I just killed a man I once considered a cousin and have left Road without any parents… I would prefer it if we did not talk about it here, where anyone could be an akuma and get on the blasted ship and get home."


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter 30

The ship from Lisbon didn't take more than a day to reach London, and from there it was a short brisk walk to HQ. Komui stood waiting for them, welcoming them home, and welcoming the three new girls welcome to the dark order.

Sokaro had sent a message by golem telling about Cyril Kamelot, and Lulubell wanted nothing more than to go back to her room and rest. First she needed some food though. Aiki offered to show the triplets around, following Lulubell towards the cafeteria.

Once inside Lulubell spotted Allen who once again where arguing with Kanda about something. She shook her head, wondering what had happened this time, when Lana blinked at them, and dragged Heather with her to the two boys. The girl stopped in front of them, making the boys stop yelling, making the rest of the hall stop talking, watching intensely.

Lana started making signs, Heather speaking and translating as best as she could.

"My innocence wanted me to come over and sing a song for you… I do not know why but would it be ok to sing a small song?"

Allen blinked curious but nodded. "Yes of course, do whatever you like."

Lana smiled and laid her hand on her innocence, the thing lighting up for a small moment. Lana opened her mouth and started to sing, the song making Allen gape and Kanda visibly looked shocked.

Lacrimosa dies illa

Qua resurget ex favilla

Judicandus homo reus.

Huic ergo parce, Deus:

Pie Jesu Domine

Lana stopped singing, taking a deep breath. Allen and Kanda still looked shocked, and Lulubell wondered if Lana's innocence had broken both the boys.

"What is going on?" Aiki asked.

"I have no idea" Lulubell said honestly. "But I think Lana broke Kanda and Allen."

"Lala." Allen finally spoke shocked. "That was… Lala."

Allen turned to the people around him and started telling the story about his first mission and about Lala.

Lana looked shocked during the entire thing, her hand always coming up to rest on her innocence. When Allen finished talking, Lana started signing again.

Helen translated the sentence with a smile.

"Thank you… for finding her and making me an innocence… without the innocence me and my sisters would have been separated."

"You are welcome" Allen said smiling.

Lulubell shook her head. This was getting too much for her. She walked over to Jerry and got her daily dose of food and milk and sat down, only to have someone clasp their hands over her eyes.

"Guess who?" Said Kitty's happy voice.

"Nice to see you Kitty, now sit down I am trying to eat."

Kitty removed her hands, sitting down pouting at Lulubell. Lulubell smiled and leant over to hug the young girl.

"It truly is good to see you Kitty." Lulubell loosened her hug as she felt Kitty flinch.

"Is something wrong Kitty?"

"Had a small accident at the mission, nothing serious but it kind of hurt."

Lulubell looked at her. "What kind of accident?"

"Oh this girl I promised to play with turned out to be a tad more troublesome than I thought."

Lulubell frowned. "And this girl… does she have a name?"

Kitty didn't answer her. "You know, I can go and ask Krory for the details."

"It was Road Kamelot."

The glass of milk that Lulubell had lifted to her mouth clinked as Lulubell put it down. Kitty yelled in surprise as Lulubell turned her around and lifted her shirt, seeing the bandages over the couple of wounds striking her back and shoulders.

"The candles I take it?"

"Yeah… it was my fault, I started talking without thinking, told her that the Noah of dreams where brainwashing her. It probably would have turned out worse if Allen hadn't arrived just then. Now could you please stop? People are staring."

Lulubell looked up and saw that people had indeed started staring; probably wondering what was going on. Lulubell dragged Kitty's shirt down over her wounds again, kissing her on the forehead.

"Don't make me worry like that" she muttered, Kitty smiling.

"In this job how can I not."

"True" Lulubell said. She looked up and saw Allen. "Speaking of wich I need to talk to Allen."

Lulubell finished her milk and rose, walking over to Allen. "Hi there Allen… Kitty tells me you had a small meeting with Road."

Allen winced slightly. "Yeah I suppose I did."

"And how did that meeting go exactly?"

"I asked for my memories back."

Lulubell looked at him. "Not that it's my business but why would you want to have memories about Road abusing your body?"

"Because it's my decision… she does not get to choose what I remember and what I don't."

"Hmm… and what did you have to give up in return?"

Allen looked at her.

"Don't give me that look. I know Road; she never does anything unless she get's something out of it. What did you have to give to get your memories back?"

"A kiss. I have a feeling that she was going to try and do more too but… she ran off. After what I have heard I suppose that it was because of her father… I should thank you for that I think."

Lulubell sighed. "It had to be done… I did not like doing it but… it had to be done. And on the way back I thought of one more thing that should be done, and done fast… Allen I need you to answer me truly. What do you think of Road Kamelot? Not the Noah of dream's, but of Road herself?"

Allen laughed morosely. "You know what, I have asked myself that question so many times that I don't have the number… but I think that I recently came to the conclusion that I feel sorry for her, for what the monster within her is making her do… I want to help her, even if she does not want the help herself."

Lulubell smiled. "Then I think I can help you with that… come on, we need to talk to Komui."

Lulubell dragged Allen with her to Komui and started explaining about a plan she had had since the boat ride from Lisbon.

As she finished Allen and Komui both blinked, taking their time processing exactly what Lulubell was saying.

Allen was the first to speak. "Oh my god she is going to kill us for this. But I am so in… we can do this right?"

Komui nodded. "Well it's not like it hasn't happened before… I will call the people we need, and I will let you know the moment we are ready to act."

DGMDGMDGM

Road sighed. She was bored. Her house felt so big and empty now that she lived here alone… well Tykki came and visited now and then but it wasn't the same. Road rose from her chair, deciding to walk out and get some fresh air. Who knew, maybe she even got the chance to destroy a few lowly people's life's as well.

Skipping out the door she told a nearby akuma servant that all intruders where to be ignored and walked down the road in a random direction, not noticing a pair of watchful eyes looking down at her from a rooftop.

Road had walked no more than a few blocks when she smiled. Two girls, dressed in standard red and black exorcist uniform's stood in front of her on the road, one groaning.

"Man we're lost aren't we?"

The other didn't answer, simply wrote something down on a small notepad and hold it up.

"What do you mean you told me we should have taken a left at the last intersection? That would have taken us west, we need to get south down to the… may I help you little girl?"

Road smiled, noticing that the blonde haired girl was talking to her.

"Oh no, on the contrary I might be able to help you… may I ask where you are heading?"

Road smiled her sweetest smile, wondering how much innocence she would be able to destroy by the end of the day. The blonde smiled and explained the way they were going.

"I know the way" Road said smiling. "I can lead you there if you'd like."

"Yes please, if that's not much trouble."

And as Road walked in front of them, the two exorcists shared a look and followed the girl who led them down busy roads and into hidden alleyways until finally they were at an old abandoned storage house.

Road opened her mouth, about to ask if they were correct about the address when the silent girl opened her mouth. The song that she sung was long and when she thought back about it later Road could remember nothing except the song.

Come Little Children

I'll Take Thee Away,

Into A Land

Of Enchantment

Come Little Children

The Time's Come To Play

Here In My Garden

Of Magic

Follow Sweet Children

I'll Show Thee The Way

Through All The Pain And

The Sorrows

Weep Not Poor Children

For Life Is This Way

Murdering Beauty And

Passions

Hush Now Dear Children

It Must Be This Way

To Weary Of Life And

Deceptions

Rest Now My Children

For Soon We'll Away

into The Calm And

The Quiet

Come Little Children

I'll Take Thee Away, Into A Land

Of Enchantment

Come Little Children

The Time's Come To Play

Here In My Garden

Of Shadows

"..OAD, DAMN IT ROAD WAKE UP, IT'S A TRAP GET AWAY."

Road groaned. "What happened?" She muttered, her head pounding like mad.

Trying to lift her hand to her face she found it impossible, and looked down to see that her arm was chained to the chair she for some reason was sitting in.

"For the love of god Road what happened to you?"

Road looked up into a mirror seeing Dreams, the memory of Noah looking terrified and worried for some reason.

"Dreams? What's going on? Last I remember I was walking some exorcists into a trap."

"Or at least that's what you think you did."

Road looked away from Dreams, suddenly seeing a lot of other people in the mirror in front of her.

The two girls who she had followed looked at her from behind a pair of shaded glasses, as did the general she recognized as the one who took Lulubell away…

Speaking of wich, Lulubell herself stood leaning against the wall, next to Allen. And seeing them in the mirror Road suddenly realized something.

"Where are your shadows? What in the world happened to Lust and Neah?"

"Lust went out of the picture a relatively long time ago" Lulubell said. "As for Neah well…" she looked at Allen, remembering back a week or so after her return from Lisbon when she had been woken in the middle of the night.

Opening the door she saw Allen, and a row of stigmata's on his forehead. He hadn't even needed to say anything, Lulubell simply lifted him up in her arms, knocked on Aiki's door and told her to get General Cloud and anyone who could be trusted. Taking Allen to a large room he managed to get out his blade and thrust it through his own heart. There had barely been anything to fight once the thing came out, like a piece of muk and ooze trying to look like a human, but was destroyed before anything happened.

"Neah was destroyed about two weeks after your father's passing."

That made Road grit her teeth. "Passing my ass, someone in the order killed him, and when I find out who I will kill them slowly and painfully. Now for the love of god what the hell is going on?"

"Language young lady, be careful before I come over there and wash your mouth clean. As for what is happening, it's actually quite simple. Dear Lana over there has a pretty nice innocence ability. She sings a song that resonate with its victim and make them follow whatever she wants them to do… after we made you lead her and Aiki away from prying eyes she opened her mouth, Allen opened a door and the result is you in that chair you are sitting in. As for why you are here… well it's quite simple really."

Lulubell smiled and pulled out a piece of paper frowning at it. "Now this is a very elaborate calligraphy so excuse me for not bothering reading most of it, but the important part is down here at the bottom."

"Therefore it is decided by the child services of Lisbon Portugal that until she turns 18 Road Kamelot's guardian will be her aunt Lulubell Noah."

"Oh Hell no."

"What did I just say about that use of language Road? Do you want me to come up there with a bar of soap and stuff it in your mouth?"

Road opened her mouth, about to tell her to fuck off… but decided against it. Right now she had other things to worry about.

"All right… so you are telling me I have to stay here… and the order is somewhat ok with a Noah being near them because?"

"Oh nononono, that thing has got to go."

Road swallowed, trying not to sound worried as she asked the obvious question.

"Got to go how exactly?"

"The same way Neah and Lust went" Lulubell said, tucking away the paper into her pocket. "You don't need to worry much about the details, Allen is going to stab you… that will hurt I am afraid but it will be over fast. Probably you will end up unconscious, and when you wake up the problem is gone."

Road swallowed hard, once again trying to see if she could get out of the chains that held her.

'All right' she thought to herself. 'Stuck in a chair, so I can't open a door and escape that way… everyone is wearing glasses so I can't see anyone's eyes directly wich means I can't use my powers to destroy them from the inside… oh shit this is not good.'

Road turned to the mirror, seeing Dreams looking terrified.

"Road… do something."

Lulubell chuckled. "Oh don't be silly Dreams, she can't help you now… if you two are going to say goodbye you should do so now… isn't that right Allen?"

Road looked into the mirror and saw Allen wordlessly pull out his sword.

'Dreams… I am so sorry.'

Allen walked up to her, all the while Road still tried fruitlessly to escape from her chains.

"That's not going to work Road… Lulubell, I need direct access to her heart… would you please help?"

"Of course Allen."

Lulubell walked up, gently patting Road on the head as she came up beside her.

"Now I know this must be hard… but it's for the best in the end."

Road tried to squirm away as Lulubell unbuttoned a few of the button's on her shirt, dragging away enough of the shirt to expose the left part of Road's upper breast.

Allen looked behind him. "Ready Kitty?"

Road looked into the mirror, seeing the girl she had played with a few months earlier. The girl took on a mask and activated her innocence. Quickly she made a clone and made the clone look like a cheetah.

"Ready" she said smiling.

Road's face turned around sharply as she felt the point of Allen's sword against her chest.

"H-h-h-hey come on now Allen, let's talk this over huh?"

Allen looked at her, smiling sadly. "I am sorry Road… but this is for your own good."

And with that he thrust the sword through her heart. Road screamed in pain and fell unconscious. A black figure rose out from the wound standing before everyone, an angry glare plastered on its face.

Kitty's cheetah clone rushed up and removed the chains binding Road and lifted her up in her arms, rushing out a door Allen opened for her. The moment she was out the door closed and the exorcists turned to Dreams.

"Where did you take her?"

Lulubell smiled. "To our resident hospital ward… she needed a good bed. That and the scar on her chest is going to hurt a bit for the next week or so… also this way you won't get the chance to retreat back into her body in the unlikely chance that you manage to defeat everyone here… Now then Dreams, let's do this shall we?"

DGMDGMDGM

Road groaned as she woke up. Opening her eyes she saw a white ceiling, a light from a lamp making her eyes close again. She winced, trying to remember. And then she did.

"Oh no."

She sat up and yelped as a pain spread through her chest from her heart. Dragging lose her shirt she saw the scar shaped as a cross.

"Oh god no."

She held her hand in front of her and tried to change into Noah form. Nothing happened. She tried again… nothing. Her hand started shaking and suddenly Road realized that she was crying.

She was human… a regular, disgusting, normal HUMAN.

Footsteps made her look away, seeing Lulubell walk up to her.

"Happy now?" Road asked. Her voice dripped of so much contempt and poison that Lulubell was surprised that she didn't see poison dripping from her mouth.

"It had to be done" Lulubell said simply. "I know you don't like it… but give it some time and you will see that I was right."

Lulubell sat down next to the bed where Road sat, the girl resting her face on her knees, hugging them close to her body.

"Go away, I don't want you here."

"You can hit me if you want to… I'd hit me if I were in your position."

Road ignored her, looking morose at the wall. Lulubell sighed, leaning back in her chair.

"Can I get you something? Food? A book? A game of some sort?"

Road looked away from the wall to scowl at her. "Why you? Why did they make you my guardian?"

"Well let's see" Lulubell said closing her eyes. "Your family consists of a man so poor that he works in a mine digging for metal and god know what else. Then there are the delinquent teenage twins. I did mention your uncle Adam but since nobody knows where he lives and there was no way to contact him that was out of the question… which left me, your aunt with a respectful job, who is able to take care of you, feed you and put you in a good school and give you a decent future… their decision weren't really hard Road. Now is there anything I can get you?"

"The name of the person who killed my dad."

Lulubell sighed and closed her eyes. "That would be me as a matter of fact."

The slap Road gave her didn't really hurt… and yet a small part of her thought she had deserved it if it had.

Road reeled back in pain, clutching her chest after the sudden movement, glaring at Lulubell. "Was him dying also for the better?"

"For all the people who will live because he no longer can create wars for the earl I will say yes… but I am sorry you had to lose your father for the peace of the humans."

Lulubell reached over and ruffled her hair, Road roughly pushing the hand away, wincing again at the pain.

"Yeah that's going to calm down in a few weeks… until then I suggest you don't move around too much."

Lulubell looked up as the matron walked up to them. "Now I must go, something tells me that the matron want to tell you to rest… I'd advice that you listen to her, she can be scary when you try to defy her."

"Anything else while you are still giving me oh so important advice?"

Lulubell ignored the sarcasm and answered. "That blonde girl you decided to play with in Ireland is my girlfriend… and as such is now your step aunt. Just thought you should know that."

And with that Lulubell turned to the matron. "If she starts swearing you have my full authorization to wash her mouth. It's about time we dealt with all the things she has been allowed to do that she shouldn't."

"Very well Lulubell, don't worry, she's safe in my hands."

"Thank you matron." Lulubell left, giving Road a gentle smile as she turned around. "I'll bring you some dinner later on Road, please try to behave."

Lulubell managed to get out of the room just as Road answered.

"BITE ME."


	31. Chapter 31

Chapter 31

Road sighed as she lay in the bed she had been given.

What should she do now? The earl would not take her back now, not even if she found a way to escape. She was stuck… stuck in this place with no bloody silver lighting behind the dark clouds she was seeing.

"Still wallowing in self pity?" Road looked up to see Allen walk up to her, a tray in his hands.

"Lunch" he said, as he noted her gaze.

"I'm not hungry" Road said, barely loud enough for Allen to hear her.

"Road you got to eat."

"Says who?"

"Road if you don't eat of your own free will someone will come and force it down your throat."

"Someone? You aren't including yourself in that are you?"

"I'm not about to do something that would harm you."

At that Road laughed sharply, stopping only as her chest starting throbbing again.

"A little too late for that, isn't it Allen?"

"Not really… Dreams was hurting you, no matter if you think that she didn't… removing her meant helping you. Now please eat."

Road sighed again. "You're not going to let this go are you?"

"No."

Road sat up, not even looking up as Allen placed the try in her lap.

A slice of toast, a boiled egg and a glass of milk.

"If you want more I can get it for you, but Lulubell told Jerry that you are not getting any sugar until after dinner."

Road didn't answer, only took a bite out of the toast eating silently. Allen frowned but turned away, starting to walk down towards the hallway.

"There is no need to look at the situation so glumly Road… you are in good hands here."

Road ignored him. A small part of Allen missed the girl who would never leave him alone… no matter if she tried to kill him later on.

He walked out of the door, leaving Road alone once again. However as he rounded a corner, he almost walked into Kitty.

"Hey there Allen, why the sad face?"

Allen sighed. "Just went to see Road… She is having a really hard time."

"Yeah I guessed as much… however there is only one way to fix that."

"Leave her alone until she stops sulking?"

Kitty laughed. "Silly boy we only have her until she turns 18. No we do what we did with Lulubell, force her into being social, the rest will come of itself."

Allen sighed. "I wish I had your enthusiasm Kitty."

"Well life has been pretty tough for me" Kitty said shrugging. "So I tell myself that there is no way other than up from here and go into each challenge with a smile. Speaking of which, I think it's time I went and talked to my new step niece. Wish me luck?"

"Good luck" Allen said, shaking his head, already feeling a lot better.

Kitty walked into the room smiling at Road. "Good afternoon."

Road swallowed the last of her toast. "Get out."

"Now is that any way to welcome your new step aunt?"

Kitty ducked as Road threw a plate at her head, wincing as it crashed and smashed into tiny little pieces on the floor.

"Now, now. That's not the way good little girls behave now is it?"

"OUT."

Kitty caught the glass that was hurled at her this time, setting it on a nightstand table next to her before turning to Road who had lifted the egg glass up to throw this time.

"Really now Road, there is no need for such poor behavior."

Kitty didn't even bat an eyelash as she caught the egg glass thrown at her.

"You want to throw the tray too while you are at it?"

"No I think I will keep it to hit you over the head if you get any closer."

Kitty smiled. "Cute… now before you do anything else you might regret I would like you to remember one thing… I am technically one of the two people who currently are in charge of you. That means that if I see you do anything I deem as inappropriate I have the right to punish you… that means I can tell you no dessert after dinner, it means I can tell you that you are not to leave a room without apologizing for any misbehavior… that I can wash your mouth with soap if I hear you use any non accepted words… it also means that I can and will spank your sorry ass if you do not do as I say… do I make myself crystal clear here Road?"

Road swallowed, but did not show any signs of remorse.

Kitty smiled, but with ice gleaming in her blue eyes. "Now we all get angry and frustrated from time to time… give me the tray and I will look away this time."

Kitty held out a hand, beckoning for Road to give her the tray. Road groaned but gave her the tray… she had no desire to get spanked at the moment, nor did she feel like trying to defy the blonde in front of her.

Kitty smiled. "Thank you Road, it's good to see that you aren't going to be too much of a problem child."

Road huffed, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "What do you want?"

Kitty smiled and sat down next to Road in a chair. "You want to try asking me that again, in another tone?"

Road sighed and counted slowly to ten. "Can I help you with something?" She asked, gritting her teeth.

"That's better. Actually I came to see how you were doing… that and I still promised to play with you… our last session was cut so short."

"I'm not really in a playing mood… besides I don't think neither you nor Lulubell would look favorable on my way of playing."

"You can play without hurting anyone Road."

"Well yes I can but then what's the point."

"Careful Road… you are dancing dangerously close to a mountain cliff with the danger of falling off it."

Road sighed. "Listen… I am not comfortable with this… how in the world do you expect me to behave?"

"Like you are now" Kitty said smiling. "But as your guardian it's my job to ensure that you realize what you can and can't do. Hurting people… innocent people especially, is not something you are allowed to do… and if I do find out that you have been doing anything you shouldn't, I will do my best to make sure that you don't do it again… ok?"

"I'd say no but I have the feeling that I don't have any choice in the matter."

Kitty laughed. "Now look at that… you are actually making a joke… good to see that your mood is improving."

Kitty smiled and rose from her chair, holding out a book. "I got this from a book shop down in London… I thought it fitting as a welcome present."

Road took it, reading the title. "King Arthur and the knights of the round table… if this is about my name, they spell Camelot with a C, not a K."

"You have read it before then?"

"No… but my mom used to read for me… back when I was young."

Kitty smiled. "Well I thought it would be fitting… most likely you will be stuck here for at least a week… both Lulubell and Allen were. I thought you might want something to keep you occupied, and books have a tendency to make you disappear for a while."

Road didn't say anything to this, just looked at the book in her hands.

Kitty grinned mischievous, and before Road could react had enveloped the young girl in a hug, kissing the top of her head repeatedly. Road cried out and tried to struggle, but couldn't break loose from the grip, Kitty letting her go after a while, Road giving her the coldest deadliest glare Kitty had ever seen.

"You looked like you needed some love" Kitty said with a smile, turning on her heel. "Bye Road, enjoy the book."

Road took a few hurried breaths, tried to calm herself down but was unsuccessful, screaming so loud in frustration that the matron came out and told her to quiet down or else there'd be hell to pay.

Road ignored her, placed herself in a sitting position and opened her new book, starting to read. She didn't look up from the book again until new footsteps were heard. Looking up she saw a new woman, this not familiar at all.

"Can I help you?"

"You are Road Kamelot?"

"Yes… now who are you and in what way have I hurt you or the ones you love?"

"No one that I know of to be honest… I am Emilia… I serve as a teacher here at the order for the younger children."

Road groaned, and placed a dog ear in her book putting it down, before looking at the woman.

"All right, and I suppose that means you are in charge of me too?"

"That is your aunt's wish yes… now I have gotten your records from your old school but they kind of confuse me."

"Let me guess" Road said. "All A's, except for one D on a history test back in 4th grade. Next to no appearances in class and yet I am the model student… how is this possible?"

"Uh… yes, that's it basically."

"Well it boils down to two facts… as the Noah of dreams I could read minds. Tests were no problem as long as I could read the answer out of a nerd's head, or better yet the teacher. Homework rarely got done because no one in my family had much experience in school subjects and therefore trying to get an answer out of them was pointless."

"But why all the A's when you delivered terrible homework?"

"That one D I was given, came from a history teacher who was filling in for another. I took the card home and gave my dad the name of said teacher. Daddy went to school and walked straight in on the teachers' lounge and found the man and told him he had two options, change my grade or leave the country. The teacher in question said he wasn't afraid of thugs… the next day his wife and children died in a freak accident riding a carriage… one of the horses suddenly decided it wanted to run berserk and crash into a house on fire… strange how stuff like that happens isn't it?"

Emilia didn't answer, only pulled out a few sheets of paper. "Very well… I'd like you to fill out these."

"What are they?" Road asked.

"Forms made so that I can see how much you actually know, so I know what to teach you."

"And should I refuse to fill out these… what then?"

"Then I'd go and tell your aunt that you are refusing to comply… to which I am sure she will want to talk to you about your options."

Road scowled. "Just give me the darn pen" she mumbled.

Emilia smiled. "I'll be back in an hour… if there is something you're not sure of, just guess, it's better than leaving a blank."

And then she left.

Road grumbled. "Stupid school… stupid Lulubell."

She looked at the first sheet. Math… oh fucking joy. She looked at the next sheet. English… well it was better than math. 3rd sheet, history. 4th was geography and 5th was science and nature. 5 sheets of pure evil. Still Road could do no more than to sigh and start answering the sheets. It had almost been an hour when the smell of warm food made Road look up, only to see Lulubell carrying a plate.

"Busy at work I see?" Lulubell said with a smile. Road scowled at the paper in front of her.

"Almost finished… the teacher lady will come by and get these soon… god damn it who the he…"

"Language young lady."

Road shut her mouth, scowling at the paper again, then wrote in a number.

"Hey you need any help?" Lulubell asked.

"Yeah, if you ever find out the name of the guy that invented algebra, be sure to let me know so I can curse his name into oblivion."

A feminine laugh rang out and Emilia came walking in. "Well while we can't find the exact roots, many claim that the father of algebra was one Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī."

Road scowled again. "Too long, I stopped caring."

She held out the sheets. "Here you go."

"Thank you Road, that's nice of you."

When Road made no attempts to reply to this Lulubell cleared her throat loudly. Road looked up and suddenly understood.

"You're welcome."

Emilia smiled. "Now then I'll take these back and look them over… I will see you once you get released from here Road, good bye for now."

Road looked up to Lulubell who looked at her with a look of expectation.

"Bye" Road muttered, making Lulubell smile.

"Here is dinner" Lulubell said, placing a plate filled with a piece of steak, vegetables, mashed potato and sauce.

"There is a desert in it for you when you have finished eating everything."

Road eyes the peas and cut up carrots. "Everything?"

"Everything. Veggies and all."

"Oh come on give me a break here Lulubell, I have had a long day."

"Yes I have heard… ignoring Allen and throwing dishes at Kitty… you must be plum tuckered out."

Road wisely kept her mouth shut, and started slicing up her meat. Lulubell smiled and shook her head.

"I know that this is all very sudden… it was for me too… but you are twelve years old Road… my conscience would not allow dreams to continue using you to destroy people."

Road chewed her food, listening in on what Lulubell was saying even if she didn't really care.

"Now there is one more thing I need to tell you… not as a threat even though I am perfectly aware that it sounds like one. The order has an agreement with a school in a small town in England… children who is afflicted with the order somehow, their parents were killed by akuma, their older siblings are finders or exorcists and what not, they are allowed admittance to that school. I told Komui that as long as you behaved I would keep you here close to me… but if you try to hurt the people here like you have before I will send you there Road."

"And why would I be afraid of a school in the middle of nowhere?"

"It's a catholic school… and all the teachers are nuns."

Road, who had been swallowing some water choked and started to cough, Lulubell leaning over to tap her back until Road could breathe again.

When she could she looked at Lulubell horrified. "You'd send me to a catholic school?"

"And it's a boarding school to booth" Lulubell said nodding. "As I said I won't do it as long as you behave… so if you don't want to go there… all you got to do is behaving."

Road groaned, taking another bite of food. In her opinion Lulubell could just as easily have told her to stop breathing.

"I'll try. It's all I can promise you."

Lulubell smiled, seeing that Road had finished her dinner.

"Very well… I suppose you want your dessert now?"

"Yes, yes I do."

"All right, I'll take that back to the cafeteria and return in a moment."

Lulubell held her word. No more than 3 minutes after she had left she returned, a large glass filled to the brim with enough sugar filled substances to make Road slightly drool.

"Here you go" Lulubell said holding out the glass. "Now then this is thing has 3 spheres of ice cream, one vanilla, one chocolate and once strawberry. Also on the bottom it's practically swimming in caramel sauce, the top as you can see has warm chocolate sauce and some basic whipped cream."

Lulubell handed over the glass but held onto the spoon. "Anything you would like to say Road?"

Road didn't even pause to think. "Thank you… and my compliments to the chef."

Lulubell smiled and held out the spoon. "Good girl. Now you enjoy yourself… and don't hesitate to call if you need anything."

"Including more ice cream?"

"Nice try… only one of those a day, I think it's enough sugar in that to force Kitty into a coma. Now I have some work to do, enjoy the rest of your day Road."

Road didn't answer, she had her mouth full of ice cream.

'Maybe this wouldn't be too bad after all.'


	32. Chapter 32

Chapter 32

Road looked up from her book. The matron stood over her, looking rather important. She was staring at Road intently, as if wondering if talking to her was safe.

"May I help you?"

As an answer the matron laid a hand on her forehead. "Are you feeling nauseous?"

"No more than usual being in this blasted place."

"Any trouble breathing?"

"In this air? All the time, and yet I'm afraid I won't die any time soon."

"Keep this up young lady and I'll take your aunt up on her offer and find a bar of soap."

Road rolled her eyes. "Was it something you wanted matron?"

"It's been a week… your scar has healed and there is no need for you to take up space in a hospital bed anymore… I'll send words to your aunts to come and pick you up."

"Lovely" Road grumbled, disappearing back into her book as the matron walked away. It took no more than ten minutes before the familiar sound of Kitty's shoes made Road frown into her book.

"Morning Road, ready to get out of here?"

"I suppose" Road said with a small sigh, closing her book and marking the page.

Kitty smiled at her as she got out of the bed, and into her standard black shoes.

"Right, first things first, you have been in bed for a week, you need a shower and a fresh set of clothes."

Road couldn't really argue with the blonde's logic. If her hair wasn't spiky enough from before she could probably have styled it without adding any products to it, the grease in her hair was that bad. Kitty led Road to one of the many baths in the order's HQ and told her that she'd be right outside the shower should she need anything.

The shower felt wonderful, that much Road would admit to. She used her good sweet time in the shower, her hand resting over her scar for a little while as it had used to do lately.

"You trying to drown yourself in there Road?"

Road huffed and turned off the water. "Funny… as if you haven't been paying close attention."

"Guilty as charged" Kitty said, holding out a towel with closed eyes as Road stepped out.

As soon as Road wrapped the towel around her, Kitty lay another towel over her head and started to 'help' drying Road's hair.

"Hey stop it; you'll make it all static" Road grumbled.

True enough, the moment Kitty dragged off the towel, Road's blue hair stood out in all directions, a few strands physically lifting up to Kitty's hand as she held her hand over them.

"Now that's funny" Kitty said giggling.

"Hardy friggin har" Road grumbled, trying to make her hair lie flat. She looked over to a nearby table wich held a set of clothes.

"We tried to find something similar to what you already had" Kitty said. The outfit consisted of a basic set of black underwear, a black skirt, very much like Road's usual, but Road could feel from the touch that it was another type of fabric than her old one had been.

The shirt was a basic white cotton blouse, nothing to fancy there, as well as a red piece of fabric to make a small bow. The fabric felt and looked pretty familiar, making Road frown.

Kitty smiled at her. "Allen told me to tell you that you could keep it."

Road blinked. "This is Allen's?"

"It was… now it's yours."

Road didn't speak, simply pulled on a long pair of white and black stockings, before stepping into her shoes.

"Can we go now? Not just yet, sit down."

Road sat down in the chair Kitty held out, looking in front of her only to see her own reflection. Road blinked, as she realized it was her first time seeing her face without Dream's appearance looming over her shoulder. She moved slightly as she felt Kitty do something, relaxing slightly as she saw Kitty brush her hair.

"I should try to make amends for the towel" Kitty said with a smile that promised nothing but kindness.

Road didn't answer, just sat still watching her reflection. Kitty decided to break the silence.

"So… I have heard a lot about your mother and stepfather from Lulubell, but I don't know anything about your real father… what was he like."

"None of your damn business."

"That bad huh?"

Road scowled at Kitty through the mirror. "He took care of me, and he died, end of story."

"Die how exactly?"

Road opened her mouth and was about to answer when she stopped. "Huh… strange I can't really remember clearly."

Kitty stopped her brushing for a second, then started up again. "Lulubell told me that all Noah's had some sort of terrible childhood… I don't really see that in you. You had a mother and a father who loved you didn't you?"

"You aren't going to let this go are you?"

Kitty didn't answer and Road huffed. "Fine. If it's that important for you to know, then fine. Yes my father loved me… in fact he loved me a tad more than what was healthy or legal. Now please… can you let it lie?"

Kitty stopped her brush strokes for real then, seeing Road's eyes filled with sincerity. "I'm sorry I asked… I'll let your past lie… but know that if you ever need to talk, you can come to me."

Road didn't answer, so Kitty started brushing again. "My parent's beat me up… they never really gave me a reason… well not a good reason. I won't even try to compare your life to mine… but know that I will never do anything to hurt you."

"To late" Road grumbled, Kitty smiling.

"Aw come now, don't be like that… look at that beautiful face in the mirror… the girl whose face it belongs to should be more happy… she looks more lovely that way."

Road looked at her reflection. Kitty had done a good job with the brush; her hair followed the laws of gravity for once, and lay neatly on her head. "A tad too much maybe… you can ruffle it up if you'd like."

"Nah it's not too bad" Road shrugged, rising from her chair. "So seriously, can we go now?"

Kitty smiled at her. "Of course. Lulubell is in the dining hall, she told me to take you there when you were all freshened up."

"What is she doing in the dining hall this late?" Road asked, mildly curious.

"Well there was a new girl who innocently asked which one of the parasitic innocence wielding exorcist could eat the most… and now it turned into an eating competition."

Road just shook her head. "An eating competition? Really? And that's something important to people be…" she stopped talking. She had entered the dining hall and saw the chaos.

Krory sat down in a chair, clutching his stomach as he watched the only two people left eating, Lulubell and Allen. And Road had to marvel at the amount of empty plates next to them. Kitty placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Why don't we go and sit down until they are finished?"

Kitty walked over to Krory, sitting down. "Gave up did you Krory?"

"Yeah… I can't understand how they keep at it, the triplets fell out first, they aren't used to the feeling yet. And now… well you can see who is left."

And Kitty could, seeing both Lulubell and Allen swallow enough food in one bite than she probably could eat in a lifetime, slinging empty plates back, calling out for more.

"Look at them go" Kitty said laughing. "What do you think Road, who is winning this match?"

Road huffed. "Use your eyes, Lulubell is slowing down."

Kitty looked at Lulubell and saw that Road was right. Lulubell placed another empty plate next to her, looked over at Allen before she raised her hand in defeat. The applause for Allen was loud, Lulubell herself clapping her hands.

"Man, boy how much can you take."

"Not much more" Allen grumbled, trying to hide a small burp. "A few more plates and I think I would have fainted."

Lulubell nodded, agreeing, turning and seeing Kitty and Road. "Well now, it looks like someone is finally out of the sick bay. How are you feeling Road?"

Everyone turned to Road, Road noting that for a small second all sounds disappeared. Road scowled at Lulubell who looked at her like nothing was wrong.

"How I'm feeling? Mad, annoyed, hurt and disgusted are the first feelings that come to mind, why don't you pick one?"

Lulubell sighed. "Don't come here and tell me you are still upset about Dreams."

"UPSET? YOU DESTROYED HALF OF ME AND EXPECT ME TO NOT BE UPSET?"

"No need to raise your voice Road, we are all inside and we aren't deaf… well Heather is, but she can read people's lips so she's fine. As for Dreams she was never a part of you… she was doing stuff to you Road, stuff that I would not let her do."

"Stop lying to me Lulubell, the only thing that has changed is that I can't use any powers… Dreams is gone… I can no longer hear her voice or see her reflection… but other than that, nothing has changed."

"Oh really? Tell me Road, how old where you when Dreams first spoke to you?"

Road frowned but thought about it. "I was four… or maybe five."

"All right… and thinking back to the years before that how many humans do you remember who were kind to you?"

Road thought back… but for some reason her head became a fuzzy cloud.

"Can't remember can you?" Road looked at Lulubell. "When Dreams first went to you and woke up she started doing stuff to your head… Lust did it to me to, and I have just begun to remember bits and pieces of my past that Lust hid away… all my good memories, because good memories were bad for the Noah… after all humans are bad, humans must die, humans are not worthy breathing in the same air as their obvious supreme overlords… now if that was true, what about the good people who helped us when we were young? Your mother always spoke about a nanny you had when you were young… one who had resigned right after Cyril moved in… what was her name Road?"

Road frowned. "Amanda."

"And how did she treat you Road?"

Road thought back… tried to remember the time spent with Amanda, but could not come back with a single memory that wasn't foggy.

"See what I mean Road? Dreams were not your friend… to her you were simply yet another vessel for her to play in."

Road scowled at the floor, trying to find faults with Lulubell's logic. "All right" she said finally looking up defiant. "Let's say that you are telling me the truth, what about you? If lust controlled you like all the other Noah controlled their so called vessels… what made you so special?"

"Simple really" Lulubell said smiling. "For about half an hour Lust lost all contact and control over me."

Lulubell smile turned into a grin as she tapped her green innocence. "A new entity wanted to move in, and Lust reeled back, as being near the innocence hurt her. And for a small time, although I didn't realize it back then… I had complete control of myself… and I said what I wanted, I wanted to live. By the time the innocence calmed down and lust once again tried to take control it was too late… her complete hold over me had vanished and the innocence started healing my mind and my need. As for you, your body will heal on it's own, Allen's innocence still leave's it's trace."

Road looked away from Lulubell to Allen, who gave her a small friendly smile. Road huffed, shaking her head, turning on her heel and started walking towards the exit.

"And where do you think you're going?" Lulubell asked.

"Away from you and this blasted prison, I don't care as long as it isn't here." Road didn't get far, before Kitty stood in front of her.

"Go away" Road said, her voice trembling. And Kitty realized what the problem was.

"Road you are only a child… it's ok to be sad and upset, no one will think any less of you for being human." Kitty bent down, standing face to face with the young girl. "Road… it's ok to cry when you are sad."

Road fell apart then, her face going from angry to sad in the moment it took Kitty to blink, and suddenly Road clutched Kitty's shirt, crying into her neckline. Kitty hugged the young girl, patting her back gently, soothing her, looking over at Lulubell, who rose and silently said good bye to her friends as she stepped up to Road, patting her head as she calmed down, Kitty still holding her in a hug.

"Feel any better?"

"No" came the sour mumble into Kitty's shoulder.

"All right… want something to eat?"

"No."

"Then what do you want?"

"Peace and quiet… and Lulubell's head on a stick." Lulubell looked thoughtful.

"Huh… déjà vu. All right, our room is this way."

"Our?" Road, who finally got loose from Kitty's hug looked at Lulubell.

"Yeah, Komui gave it to us… it's better than nothing, right? Now come on." Road scowled but followed Lulubell, Kitty turning to wave good bye to her friends. As they had left Allen sighed.

"Well that went better than I'd excepted."

DGMDGM

Lulubell was worried about Road. True she had known that taking away Dreams would not be met with a happy disposition, she had hoped that after a week of thinking it over Road would have calmed down somewhat.

Road had instead chosen to completely ignore both her and Kitty the moment she got to their large room, and had sat down in her bed, disappearing into her King Arthur book. Lulubell looked over at Kitty who gave her a reassuring look, before she sat down and pulled up a pencil and started sketching away.

Lulubell shrugged, laying down on her and Kitty's bed, closing her eyes intending to rest for the time being. The moment didn't last long, as a knock on the door was heard. Lulubell sighed but rose, seeing that Road momentarily looked up from her book, before disappearing down into its pages once again.

Lulubell opened the door seeing Allen standing there, two men wearing the standard British police officer uniform.

"Hi Lulubell, these guys want a word."

Lulubell nodded, knowing that it was safe since Allen's eye hadn't reacted.

"We are so sorry to intrude ma'am, but you are one Lulubell Noah right?"

"Yes that's me, what can I help you with gentlemen?"

"It's no easy way to say this ma'am but we got a call stating that someone saw you murder your niece, one Road Kamelot."

"I did now did I?" Lulubell said, lifting an eyebrow.

She opened the door wider. "Road, could you please come over here for a minute."

"No."

The men looked at the spiky haired girl sitting in her bed. "I do apologize for her" Lulubell said with a sigh. "Her parent's recently died and I got the parental rights. Unfortunately Road has been pretty spoiled so she isn't used to anyone telling her no. Now as you can see gentlemen, Road is still very much alive."

The men looked at Road and then at each other. "Our apologies miss; we did not mean to be a bother."

"No bother at all" Lulubell said with a smile as the men put on their hats once again. "No need to pursue the case any further, I will not press charges against the one sending you falsified information."

"As you wish miss. Now we should head back. Good day to you."

The men left, Allen showing them the way. As they disappeared, Lulubell walked over to Road, taking the book from her hands.

"HEY, I was reading that."

Lulubell simply glared at her. "Give it back" Road said, returning Lulubell's glare with one of her own.

"No I don't think I will" Lulubell said simply. "You are being childish, mean and stubborn, right now you don't deserve to get what you want."

Road rose from the bed she was sitting on. "You're not the boss of me."

"Actually I am" Lulubell said, marking the side Road had been reading, turning to lay it on top of a tall cupboard that Road would have no chance reaching.

"You keep disobeying me Road, and it's time you started to learn the consequences. So for the next 24 hours, that book stays up there."

Road looked at Lulubell as if she had grown an extra head. "24 HOURS? And what do you expect me to do in the meantime, stare at the wall?"

Kitty smiled looking up from her drawings. "This place has a lot to offer Road, we have a swimming hall, a soccer field, various places to sit and draw or paint, musical instruments and so forth… you could always try being social."

Road huffed. "I'd rather stare at the wall."

"Well suit yourself" Lulubell said with a dejected sigh. "For now though I'd like to take a small walk, and I think you should come with me."

"No" Road said firmly, crossing her arms.

"And once again you seem to forget that I'm calling the shots. Besides I think you'd like this little walk… we're going to see your uncle."

Kitty looked up from her drawings again. "Do I want to know what you are up to?"

"A couple of policemen were just here after a tip that told them that I had killed Road. The only ones that would make that mistake would be the Noah's who got the memory of how Dreams died."

Lulubell reached for her black and red exorcist coat, taking it on, continuing to talk.

"All the Noah's think that since I killed Road, the Noah of dreams will return, so the Millennium Earl would not do much about Road's eventual death. The twins are to be honest so stupid I don't think they even know how to handle a phone… which leaves us with Tykki. I just thought I should take a trip and talk with my dear cousin, telling him to not worry… and maybe even strike a deal."

Having finished buttoning her jacket she looked at Road. "So, are you coming voluntarily or what?"

Road looked like she was struggling with an inner battle. Lulubell smiled, knowing that Road was fighting between the want to see Tykki, and the pride of wanting to be stubborn and not listening to Lulubell's orders.

"Fine" she said after almost half a minute, still scowling. Lulubell smiled and walked over to give Kitty a small kiss.

"I'll be back soon" she said smiling.

"I'm not worried" Kitty said, returning the kiss, ignoring Road who made gagging noises in the back.

Lulubell winked gently and gently but firmly dragged Road to Kitty who gave the protesting girl a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

"You play nice with the other children now."

"Oh go and kiss an akuma."

"I'd rather kiss you" Kitty said with a grin, kissing Road's cheek once more before letting the girl go.

Lulubell smiled and opened the door, letting Road out first, as they began walking towards the ark.

DGMDGMDGM

"What kind of backwater dump is this?" Road looked around in disgust at the mining facility that Tykki worked in.

"Don't be like that" Lulubell said, walking towards a small house. "We can't all be born rich and wealthy, now be nice."

Lulubell walked up to two men and a younger boy sitting by a shack. "Excuse me gentlemen I am looking for my cousin Tykki."

The men looked up at her. "You are Tykki's cousin?" One of the men sat down a bottle he had been drinking from, rising from his chair.

"I am. Lulubell Noah at your service."

Lulubell shook the man's hand. "This is Road, she's Tykki's niece."

Road made no move to step forward or say hello, before Lulubell gently pushed her back, making her step forward and quickly shake hands with the man in front of her.

"I'm Momo. This is Clark and the kid is Eeez. We're good friends of Tykki."

"He gives me treasures" the young kid Eeez said with a smile, holding out a silver button that neither Road nor Lulubell had problems recognizing.

'So that's what he does with them' Lulubell thought to herself.

"That's very kind of him… is he here? I'd like to have a small talk with him."

"He's down in the fields, he'll probably be back soon" Clark said rising. "I'll get you some chairs."

"No need to do anything extra for us" Lulubell said, Clark already halfway inside the house getting some rackety old chairs.

"Can I get you something? Tea? Coffee?"

"No need" Lulubell said as she sat down.

Eeez walked up to her, looking at her green stigmata. "That's a nice treasure" he said, Lulubell smiling.

"Well I've learned to appreciate it. Eeez right?"

The young boy nodded, Lulubell smiling at him. "As thanks for being so kind, how about you take this?" Lulubell smiled and yanked off one of her buttons, giving it to the boy who looked like she had given him the most precious thing in the world.

"Thank you" he said, what little of his face that was visible beaming with joy. Lulubell smiled patting his head.

"You are most welcome."

Lulubell turned to Road, who looked fixated at something in the distance. Following her gaze she saw Tykki, who had stopped a while away from them in shock.

"Road why don't you go and say hello to your uncle?"

That was all the encouragement Road needed. She ran up in a sprint, more or less crashing into Tykki, who returned the hug.

Lulubell smiled at the two, steeling herself as Tykki lifted Road into his arms and walked over to the gathering. "Lulubell… how nice of you to visit."

"I figured Road would like to see her uncle" Lulubell said with a smile, patting Eeez on the top of his head, where he still sat on top of her lap.

"After all she has had a traumatizing month. Losing her dreaming friend has made her pretty sad."

Tykki frowned. "Road… what does she mean by losing your dreamy friend?"

Road sniffed. "Dreams is gone… Allen used his sword and… 'sniff' I'm normal now Tykki and I hate it."

Tykki looked at Lulubell. "And you? How is your friend?"

"Long gone" Lulubell said with a carefree shrug. "She tried making me do stuff I didn't want to do, I had to let her go. Allen too for that matter."

Tykki's eyes became wide, putting down Road who looked better all things considerate. "All right… why are you here then? Is that any way to talk to your cousin Tykki? I thought you had better manners than that?"

"Why are you here Lulubell?"

Lulubell smiled. "This is probably a conversation best had in private, don't you think?"

Tykki nodded. "Hey guys, do you mind…"

"Oh no, we're already moving" Clark said with a smile.

Lulubell smiled. "Road why don't you go and play a while with Eeez, this won't take too long."

Road looked at her. "Why do I have to go?"

"Because I told you so."

Road huffed but was dragged off by Eeez who was delighted to have a friend to play with. As soon as the others had turned a corner Lulubell spoke up.

"The country of Lisbon has given me custody rights of Road until she turns 18. I am here to negotiate terms for you to be able to visit her, if you so wish to."

Tykki looked surprised. "You'd let me visit Road?"

Lulubell smiled. "I'd let Tykki Mikk visit Road. Not the Noah of pleasure."

Tykki scowled. "So that's it huh? Road or the family?"

"What family?" Lulubell scoffed. "There is no one else in the family you care about. Even amongst the ones who died chasing the 14th there is no one there you cared for like you do with Road. The truth of the matter is this Tykki, if the Noah's win the war, something I highly doubt will happen, Road will be killed, as will your friends here. After all they are but simple humans. Why not help us instead? It might even help you with that agonizing pain I know you are going through."

Tykki laid a hand over his side, where one of his scars screamed in pain as it did 24/7. He looked up at Lulubell.

"You really have changed" he said with a sigh.

"Not really" Lulubell said with a smile. "The thing that has changed is that Lust is gone and no longer control what I say or do, I just got through it all a lot faster because I had help."

Lulubell tapped her green stigmata smiling. "Road will take a bit longer to help I'm afraid, but when the time comes even she will turn over a new leaf, I can guarantee it."

Lulubell rose, straightening her uniform. "Now then, we should be heading back, it's a school night and Road will need the energy."

Tykki simply looked at her. "I could just kill you now, you know. Take your innocence and crush it, bringing Road back to the millennium earl."

"You could" Lulubell said with a nod. "And at the same time you would lose your job as well as all your friends who knows it was you and you'd never have your human side be the same as it was before the incident."

Tykki didn't move, Lulubell smiling.

"Now then, let me just find Road and we will be out of your hair."

DGMDGMDGM

Road was scowling as she walked with Lulubell up the hill away from Tykki and his human friends.

"Well Road, did you have fun?"

"The brat was insufferable."

"He was playing" Lulubell said calmly and patiently.

"He kept poking me."

"You were playing tag and you tried to shove him every chance you got."

"He's a filthy human."

"So are you, what's your point?"

Road didn't say anything, simply growling at the ground in front of her. Lulubell sighed.

"Road you need to stop turning people away from you."

"Why should I?"

"What have the humans ever done to you Road?"

"My father… I know that story Road… You told it to me once before. But just because one person did wrong by you that does not mean you get to think that the entire world is like that."

Road huffed, not even raising an eyebrow as a white door materialized itself out of nowhere, Allen walking out.

"Hi Lulubell, Road, glad to see that you made it."

"We were never in any danger" Lulubell said, gesturing to Road to walk in first.

She more or less stomped through the door, not even pausing to look at Allen.

"She's still mad then?" Allen asked sadly.

"Give her some time" Lulubell said. "I didn't turn out like this in a day either. She'll learn, one way or the other."

Lulubell walked past Allen who could do nothing more than to follow her.

"Still, I have this feeling that she is up to something" Allen said.

"I agree" Lulubell said. "That's why I have a small job for you, if you want it."

Allen looked up briefly to Lulubell, who still held her gaze on the back of Road's head, the twelve ear old still glaring at the floor as she walked towards the black order.


End file.
